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Extractive distillation and pressure‐swing distillation for THF /ethanol separation
Author(s) -
Wang Yinglong,
Cui Peizhe,
Ma Yuhong,
Zhang Zhen
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of chemical technology and biotechnology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1097-4660
pISSN - 0268-2575
DOI - 10.1002/jctb.4452
Subject(s) - distillation , azeotrope , extractive distillation , azeotropic distillation , batch distillation , pressure swing adsorption , chemistry , process engineering , swing , reuse , ethanol , continuous distillation , fractional distillation , organic chemistry , waste management , adsorption , engineering , mechanical engineering
BACKGROUND During the synthesis of a liquid crystal monomer, an effluent including tetrahydrofuran( THF ) and ethanol is produced. Since THF and ethanol are both important solvents used in the chemical industry, it is necessary to separate the mixture of THF and ethanol for reuse. However, it is hard to effectively separate the mixture via simple distillation because a minimum azeotrope is formed in the binary system. RESULT Extractive distillation and pressure‐swing distillation are adopted to separate the mixture and carefully optimized to achieve minimization of the total annual cost ( TAC ). A comparison between the two processes is carried out. Pressure‐swing distillation is used to separate mixtures of THF and ethanol with various compositions. CONCLUSION The results indicate that pressure‐swing distillation performs better than extractive distillation from the standpoint of both economic considerations and product purity. The feasible sequence of high and low pressure of two columns in a pressure‐swing distillation is related to the feed composition. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry