Design and Optimization of Fully Thermally Coupled Distillation Scheme for the Naphtha Splitter Process

AbstractNaphtha feed stock is separated into light naphtha, heavy naphtha and light kerosene in sequence. Systems and methods of naphtha feed stock are destined for a conventional distillation sequence and the other applications with less energy consumption than conventionally possible, while producing less greenhouse gas emissions. In this work, the comparison between the conventional sequence and the fully thermally coupled distillation column or so-called dividing wall column was carried out based on the minimum vapor flow rate at infinite number of stages. The evaluation results showed that the dividing wall column can be effectively used to improve the performance of the naphtha splitter process. In this paper, the pseudo-components for defining a liquid fraction have been described through using a commercial process simulator. A response surface methodology was applied to the design of the dividing wall column. A less number of facilities are provided and correspondingly less capital investment as well as reduced operating cost can be achieved. Reducing CO2 emission is another benefit which is derived from the proposed sequence