APPLICATION OF RESIDUE CURVE MAP FOR FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS OF EXTRACTIVE DISTILLATION

A residue curve map (RCM) is a collection of the liquid residue curves in a simple one-stage batch distillation originating from different initial compositions. Computing residue curve maps allows one to find azeotropes and is also considered as powerful tool for the flow-sheet development and preliminary design of conventional multi-component separation processes. Residue curve map has been generated using MATLAB for homogenous azeotropic mixture of acetonechloroform with benzene used as entrainer for extractive distillation. Application of RCM to distillation process has been reported as it not only represents a good approximation to actual equilibrium behavior, but also it allows performing feasibility analysis of separation processes where non-ideal and azeotropic mixtures are involved. However, a generalized and systematic approach is still missing for the feed composition outside conventional compositional ranges which is the aim of study of this paper. The composition simplex obtained from the residue curve map is transformed to sub-regions characterized by separation boundaries and initial separation sequences have been generated. A feasibility analysis of the extractive distillation process has been performed in ASPEN PLUS based upon the location of the feed composition of ternary mixture to obtain high purity acetone and chloroform. Keywords— Extractive Distillation, Residue Curve Map, Feasibility Analysis