STUDY OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF A WETTED-WALL DISTILLATION COLUMN WITH INTERNAL HEAT INTEGRATION

This paper reports simulation and experimental studies of the energy efficiency and the separation performance of a wetted-wall distillation column with internal heat transfer from the rectifying section to the stripping section. In the simulation, a mathematical model was established on the basis of the interface mass transfer theory, and an operation-type simulator for a differential distillation column with internal heat integration was developed. In the experiments, a vertical concentric double-tube wetted-wall distillation column was used, and the separation of a binary system of ethanol-water was carried out. The close agreement between the simulation results and the experimental results suggests the applicability of the proposed model. Both the simulation and experimental results show extensive improvement of the energy efficiency and the separation performance of the wetted-wall distillation column when it is operated with internal heat integration. © 1990, The Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan. All rights reserved.