ENERGETIC ANALYSIS AND PROCESS INTEGRATION IN ALCOHOL DISTILLATION:
CONVENTIONAL AND DOUBLE EFFECT METHOD
Keywords:
energy integration, double effect distillation, conventional distillation, superfine alcoholAbstract
Energy consumption was determined in two schemes of alcohol distillation. In the first scheme, columns operate at a pressure close to atmospheric pressure and the second one works with vacuum pressures. An analysis of energy integration in the ASPEN PINCH software is done, determining the minimum requirements of hot and cold utilities in each process. The composite curves showed that there are possibilities for energy recovery in both processes. A minimum ΔT (ΔTmín) optimum of 25oC for conventional distillation and 20oC for double effect distillation was obtained. The grids diagram showed the minimum number of exchange units with differences according to the real processes and utilities over consumption for both distillation schemes. The minimum consumption of utilities obtained from energy integration resulted in savings of 52% for double effect distillation and 75% for conventional distillation.