Separation Science and Technology, Vol.52, No.11, 1885-1900, 2017
Efficiency-based nonequilibrium modeling of industrial-scale multicomponent distillation columns
An efficiency-based nonequilibrium model is proposed to simulate two industrial distillation columns. In this model, the behavior of trays is studied by considering the mass transfer at interphase. The interphase mass transfer is simply evaluated by the simultaneous solution of the vapor material balance equation and the definition of the Murphree efficiency. A MATLAB code is developed to implement the simulation procedure. For verification, the product compositions and plate temperatures are compared with the reported experimental data. The discrepancy of the experimental and simulation results is about 0.5% and 20% for the temperature and the product compositions for both columns, respectively.
Keywords:Interphase mass transfer;multicomponent distillation;Murphree efficiency;nonequilibrium modeling