Improved design of heat-pump extractive distillation based on the process optimization and multi-criteria sustainability analysis. (January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shi, Tao; Liu, Yue; Yu, Haoshui; Yang, Ao; Sun, Shirui; Shen, Weifeng; Lee, Carman K.M.; Ren, Jingzheng
• Is Part Of: Computers & chemical engineering. Volume 156(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-01
• Subjects: Extractive distillation -- Heat-pump technique -- Process optimization -- Sustainability analysis -- Composite sustainability index; Chemical engineering -- Data processing -- Periodicals; 660.0285
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compchemeng.2021.107552
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0098-1354

Abstract

Highlights: A systematic framework is presented for the design of a sustainable extractive distillation configuration. The composite sustainability index is constructed considering the economic, environmental and social dimensions. The self-adaptive mesh direct search algorithm optimization is used in evaluating the single composite objective. The heat-pump technique can be used in extractive distillation to save energy. Abstract: In order to achieve the sustainable separation design of azeotropic mixtures, this study proposed a systematic framework for distillation process optimization and intensification based on a composite sustainability index. Binary minimum azeotropic mixture ethanol-ethyl propionate was studied as an illustrative example. Specifically, three extractive distillation configurations were firstly applied on the separation and the sustainability of distillation processes were evaluated comprehensively. The composite sustainability index was constructed with the indicators of the economic, environmental, technical and social dimensions, and fuzzy weighting method was used to determine the weight of each indicator. Then, the process can be optimized with the objective of the composite sustainability index by the mesh adaptive direct search algorithm. After that, the heat-pump is further implemented to make full use of the latent heat of vapor stream in the distillation system . The T-H diagram of two upgraded processes clearly demonstrates the heat recovery while considering the specified minimum heat-transfer temperature difference. Graphical Abstract: Image, graphical abstract