Location

Cherry Auditorium, Kirk Hall

Start Date

10-13-2011 1:00 PM

Description

The task of separating a mixture of components, specifically via distillation, represents a significant and often costly part of almost any chemical process plant. Distillation is by far the most prevalent industrial separation technique, albeit an extremely energy intensive one, consuming an estimated 6% of the entire energy produced in the USA1. In lieu of the current energy crisis, engineers have therefore been forced to critically relook the way distillative separations are performed and identify cost and energy saving opportunities. Column Profile Maps (CPMs) have recently been developed within our group as a graphical method to synthesize distillation columns. The maps generated through this technique are essentially a family of composition profiles derived from a first order differential equation for a single, generalised column section. Because the CPM method is generalised it is not specific to any one configuration (a major downfall in several other design methods), the design engineer has the tools to come up with new and creative designs. Thus, the designer is not limited by current equipment to design new structures. The CPM principle has been applied and extended to a wide range of separation methods, such as Reactive Distillation, Membrane Separations and complex columns like Petlyuk and Kaibel columns. Moreover, the technique offers valuable insights in the selection of an appropriate thermodynamic model for a particular system.

1. Lucia A, McCallum BR. Energy targeting and minimum energy distillation column sequences. Computers & Chemical Engineering. 2010;34(6):931-942.

Comments

Downloadable file is a PDF of the original event flier.

COinS
 
Oct 13th, 1:00 PM

Separation synthesis using Column Profile Maps

Cherry Auditorium, Kirk Hall

The task of separating a mixture of components, specifically via distillation, represents a significant and often costly part of almost any chemical process plant. Distillation is by far the most prevalent industrial separation technique, albeit an extremely energy intensive one, consuming an estimated 6% of the entire energy produced in the USA1. In lieu of the current energy crisis, engineers have therefore been forced to critically relook the way distillative separations are performed and identify cost and energy saving opportunities. Column Profile Maps (CPMs) have recently been developed within our group as a graphical method to synthesize distillation columns. The maps generated through this technique are essentially a family of composition profiles derived from a first order differential equation for a single, generalised column section. Because the CPM method is generalised it is not specific to any one configuration (a major downfall in several other design methods), the design engineer has the tools to come up with new and creative designs. Thus, the designer is not limited by current equipment to design new structures. The CPM principle has been applied and extended to a wide range of separation methods, such as Reactive Distillation, Membrane Separations and complex columns like Petlyuk and Kaibel columns. Moreover, the technique offers valuable insights in the selection of an appropriate thermodynamic model for a particular system.

1. Lucia A, McCallum BR. Energy targeting and minimum energy distillation column sequences. Computers & Chemical Engineering. 2010;34(6):931-942.