ENUMERATION OF SEQUENCES OF COMPLEX RECTIFICATION COLUMNS

A recursive procedure for enumerating separation sequences involving columns with one or two feed streams and several sidestreams is presented in this paper. The first part deals with the case of a single feed stream. The enumeration of all the possible sequences as a function of the number of intermediate sidestreams of the first separator is described. The combinatorial nature of the problem leads to the systematic coding and generation of all the sequences, and this point appears to be important for optimization purposes. Several examples are given. The more complex case of a double feed stream is presented in the second part. Under some assumptions, the same recursive approach can be implemented for enumerating all the possible sequences.