• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.270-276
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• 2012

In this study, thermally coupled distillation system and conventional two-column process were investigated for extractive distillation. The two processes were simulated and optimized using Aspen plus. Objective function for the optimization was energy consumption and optimization results to reduce energy consumption were used to get guidelines for design and operation for the two extractive distillation processes. Comparison of these two processes showed that thermally coupled distillation system provided better energy efficiency and lower capital cost than conventional distillation system.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.815-824
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• 2012

Extractive distillation system can be used when the components to be separated have close boiling points or form azeotropes. Extractive distillation is one of the most important and widely used separation methods in chemical process industry. The main disadvantage of the distillation is its high-energy requirements. Thermally coupled distillation system (TCDS) can provide significant savings in energy consumption and capital cost over the operation of sequences based on conventional distillation column. Despite such advantages of the thermally coupled distillation system, the process is not widely used in industry because control and operation of the column are difficult. In this study, we propose several control schemes for thermally coupled distillation system to overcome the difficulties and make the column stable when the process is confronted with feed disturbances. Profile position control scheme shows best control performance among the proposed control schemes.