ENERGY MANAGEMENT IN DISTILLATION

Abstract

As the distillation columns call for energy consumption and huge capital outlays, the energy management in distillation has become a need of the hour. Energy management involves the reduction of energy consumption and identification of the regions where energy can be better utilized. This thesis brings out a theoretical investigation on energy management in distillation by the use of heat pump with conventional distillation column. The use of heat pump for energy management has been described by replacing coolant with an evaporating refrigerant at low pressure and by replacing steam heating of a reboiler with a condensing refrigerant at a high pressure. Heat pump assisted distillation columns reduce the requirement of hot utilities and cold utilities which will bring down the total costs involved in the process. But, at the same time, employing new equipments like compressor, heat exchangers etc. which require additional capital costs, pose a challenge to the economic efficiency of the process. Thus, the dissertation work includes the determination of hot and cold utilities by Ponchon Savant method (a graphical method) and by simulation of distillation column. Economic analysis of the heat pump assisted distillation configuration has been done. Due to reduction in requirement of utilities in the heat pump assisted distillation configuration, saving in the total costs has been shown compared to the conventional distillation column