Multi-effect distillation applied to an industrial case study

Abstract
An industrial separation system consisting of four pressure-staged distillation columns has been studied to see if multi-effect integration
can be applied to any two columns in the sequence. Shortcut equations and Vmin-diagrams have been used for screening purposes to find the
columns with the highest potential for energy savings. The most promising case has then been further studied using rigorous simulation tools
to verify the results from the shortcut approach. Three cases have been simulated: a non-integrated base case (existing), a multi-effect indirect
split arrangement (ISF) and a multi-effect prefractionator arrangement (PF). The results showed that when considering the existing number
of stages available the ISF arrangement was the best, however when considering infinite number of stages the PF arrangement was the best
(as expected).
© 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Energy saving; Process integration; Multi-effect distillation; Prefractionator