Energy-efficient recovery of tetrahydrofuran and ethyl acetate by triple-column extractive distillation: entrainer design and process optimization
Ao Yang1,2, Yang Su3, Tao Shi2, Jingzheng Ren2, Weifeng Shen1(), Teng Zhou4,5()
1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 401331, China 2. Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China 3. School of Intelligent Technology and Engineering, Chongqing University of Science & Technology, Chongqing 401331, China 4. Process Systems Engineering, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany 5. Process Systems Engineering, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
An energy-efficient triple-column extractive distillation process is developed for recovering tetrahydrofuran and ethyl acetate from industrial effluent. The process development follows a rigorous hierarchical design procedure that involves entrainer design, thermodynamic analysis, process design and optimization, and heat integration. The computer-aided molecular design method is firstly used to find promising entrainer candidates and the best one is determined via rigorous thermodynamic analysis. Subsequently, the direct and indirect triple-column extractive distillation processes are proposed in the conceptual design step. These two extractive distillation processes are then optimized by employing an improved genetic algorithm. Finally, heat integration is performed to further reduce the process energy consumption. The results indicate that the indirect extractive distillation process with heat integration shows the highest performance in terms of the process economics.
. [J]. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 2022, 16(2): 303-315.
Ao Yang, Yang Su, Tao Shi, Jingzheng Ren, Weifeng Shen, Teng Zhou. Energy-efficient recovery of tetrahydrofuran and ethyl acetate by triple-column extractive distillation: entrainer design and process optimization. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(2): 303-315.
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