Methodology development for sustainable energy efficient distillation columns (Sustain-EEDCS) sequence design

A new methodology has been developed which is aimed to improve the energy efficiency of the existing distillation columns systems without having major modifications and addition of sustainability criteria. Distillation operations also became one of the targeted energy saving in unit operations of the chemical process plant. The objective of this paper is to present a new improvement of the existing methodology by including a sustainability analysis to design an optimal sequence of energy efficient distillation columns. The capability of this methodology is tested in designing an optimal sustainable energy efficient distillation columns sequence of hydrocarbon mixtures and natural gas liquids mixtures. Both existing distillation columns sequences are simulated using a simple and reliable short-cut method for distillation column design within Aspen HYSYS simulation environment. The three-dimension of sustainability indicator is used to perform sustainability criteria. The energy and sustainability analysis is performed and shows that the optimal sequence determined by the driving force method has better energy and sustainability reduction compared to existing sequence. It can be concluded that, the sequence determined by the driving force method is not only capable in reducing energy consumption, but also has better sustainability index for both hydrocarbon mixture and natural gas liquids separation unit