• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.307-313
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• 2014

In this study, an optimization process design has been performed to separate 99.9 mol% of Isobutyl Acetate from binary azeotropic mixture of Isobutyl Acetate and Isobutyl Alcohol system using a Pressure Swing Distillation (PSD). PSD is used to separate binary azeotropic mixtures using the difference between the relative volatilities and azeotropic compositions by changing the system pressure. Non-Random Two Liquid (NRTL) model for liquid phase and the Peng-Robinson equation for vapor phase are used. An optimization study for the reflux ratio and feed stage locations which minimize the total reboiler heat duties are studied. Since PSD process consists of two columns, i.e. high pressure and low pressure, the effect of column sequence on the optimum conditions is reported.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.55-60
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• 2012

The energy conservation and exergy loss of a fully thermally coupled distillation commercialized as the divided wall column are compared with those of a conventional two-column system for ternary separation. The used example for the comparison is the benzene-toluene-m-xylene separation process widely used in a petrochemical plant. The design procedure of the fully thermally coupled distillation column is explained, and the energy requirement is compared using the HYSYS. When the same numbers of trays are utilized, the fully thermally coupled distillation column uses 28.2% less energy and 10.4% more exergy loss. The increase of the exergy loss is due to the additional mixing from the bidirectional inter-linking and the temperature elevation in the reboiler from the increased pressure at the bottom of the main column.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.52-56
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• 2007

Though a reactive distillation column reduces energy requirement and gives easy separation of azeotropic mixture to result in wide practical applications in field, its design is difficult. On the other hand, a commercial design software used largely in chemical process design and performance evaluation can solve the problem, but the addition of reaction into the tray is not simple. In this study the addition is implemented to make the process simulation available, and it is utilized in the design of a TAME process to find the following design guidelines. The addition of reactive trays gives more composition elevation than the composition decrease from the reduction of the trays, and the increase of non-reactive trays does not improve product quality. The elevation of reboiler heat duty lowers the product quality by the reduction of residence time in reactive tray and conversion.

• Clean Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.347-354
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• 2012

In this study, simulation works have been performed for the $CO_2$ removal process contained in the DME production process using NMP (N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone) as a solvent. PRO/II with PROVISION release 9.1 at Invensys was used as a chemical process simulator and NRTL activity coefficient model with Henry's law option and Soave-Redlich-Kwong equation of state were used for thermodynamic models. For the determination of the binary interaction parameters in NRTL model, regression works have been performed to match the experimental thermodynamic data. Optimal feed tray location which minimizes the reboiler heat duty was determined.

• Clean Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.241-249
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• 2016

In this study, comparative work has been performed between two-columns and three-columns configurations for an extractive distillation process to produce highly purified ethanol with not less than 99.7 wt% using dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and ethylene glycol (EG) as extracting agents. Optimal ethanol concentration at a concentrator top stream which minimized the total reboiler heat duties was determined for a three-columns configuration for two different solvents. For the thermodynamic model, NRTL liquid activity coefficient model was used and PRO/II with PROVISION 9.4 at Schneider electric company was utilized. DMSO was proved to be a better solvent than EG and three-columns configuration is better than two- columns configuration in the total utility consumptions since some of the liquid water contained in the feed stream was removed at a concentrator bottom liquid stream.

• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.2336-2347
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• 2018

The azeotrope of methyl acetate methanol and water was isolated using extractive distillation with water as entrainer. The pressure-swing extractive distillation (PSED) process and vapor side-stream distillation column (VSDC) with the rectifier process were designed to separate the methyl acetate, methanol and water mixture. It was revealed that the VSDC with the rectifier process had a reduction in energy consumption than the PSED process. Four control schemes of the two process were investigated: Double temperature control scheme (CS1), $Q_R/F$ feedforward control of reboiler duty scheme for PESD (CS2), $Q_R/F$ feedback control scheme for VSDC (CS3), the feedback control scheme of sensitive plate temperature of side-drawing distillation column to dominate the compressor shaft speed (CS4). Feed flow and composition disturbance were used to evaluate the dynamic performance. As a result, CS4 is a preferable choice for separation of methyl acetate-methanol-water mixture. A control scheme combining the operating parameters of dynamic equipment with the control indicators of static equipment was proposed in this paper. It means using the sensitive plate temperature of side-drawing column to control the compressor shaft speed. This is a new control scheme for extractive distillation.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 2022

This study developed the black liquor evaporation process models using the multiple-effect-evaporator according to the number of effects to predict steam consumption. The developed models were divided into the black liquor preheating and evaporation processes, and a virtual reboiler was added to predict steam consumption. In simulation results, the steam consumption in the double-effect-evaporator was decreased by 48.9 %, and as the number of effects increased, the steam consumption was decreased. Finally, the steam consumption in the octuple-effect-evaporator was decreased by 61.2 %. Also, this study suggests a strategy for deriving the optimal number of effects in the process by analyzing the latent heat recovered from the saturated vapor produced in the multiple-effect-evaporator and the amount of saturated vapor produced by each effect.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.739-746
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• 2008

The aim of this study is finding the optimal design parameters and the optimal operation variables of a reactive distillation column. Different from steady state optimization, dynamic optimization makes it possible considering operation ability as well as design problems at process design step. For performing dynamic optimization, dynamic simulation should be done first. If dynamic simulation is already finished, dynamic optimization can be performed with less effort than that of dynamic simulation.Reactive distillation systems involving reaction and separation in a single unit have the potential to reduce capital and operating costs, particularly when reaction have conversion constraint or when azeotropes exist making conventional separation difficult and expensive. This study here present work on the continuous distillation process, the homogeneous catalyzed esterification of methanol and acetic acid, the synthesis of methyl acetate. Based on an equilibrium stage model of a reactive distillation column a dynamic optimization problem was formulated and solved. And the results were verified by performing dynamic simulation and showing the variation of conversion and purity as the variation of the operation variables. As the results of dynamic optimization, this study found optimal feed ratio, reflux ratio and reboiler duty of this system. And as this study applied it to dynamic simulations the dynamic characteristics of a reactive distillation column are showed under optimal operating condition.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.17-26
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• 1998

A study on the recovery of silver and nitric acid in the liquid waste resulted from the mediated electrochemical oxidation(MEO) process was conducted. The removal of silver in the concentrated nitric acid solutions was carried out by the electrodeposition. The removal efficiency more than 98% could be obtained in nitric acid concentrations less than 3 M with the current efficiency of nearly 100%. The experimonts on the evaporation for the recovery of nitric acid were performed as well. At the evaporation factor of 25., the degree of nitric acid recovery in 3.5 M nitric acid solution containing 0.5 to 1.0 mol% NaNO, was 80~90% resulting in 2.8~3.1 M nitric acid. The design factors and operating conditions of the distillation tower were analyzed by using MEH model derived by Maphtali-Sandholm with the throughput of 4 kg/hr for the enrichment of dilute nitric acid solution recovered by evaporation to reuse in the MEO process. The distillation column composed of eleven theoretical stages having the overall tray efficiency of 70% are needed to obtain 1.03 kg/h of 12M nitric acid and 2.97 kg/h of water with feed being introduced to the column at tray 6 from the bottom at the reflux ratio of 0.25, the reboiler with the heat load of 2.7 kW, and the condenser with the cooling load of 0.5 kW.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.368-377
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• 2023

Natural Gas Combined Cycle(NGCC) recently receives lots of attention as an attractive form of power plants by virtue of its low carbon emission compared with coal-fired power plant. Nevertheless, it also needs carbon capture process since it is difficult to completely suppress carbon emission even for the NGCC. A simulation study has been performed to optimize operating condition of a carbon capture process using MEA considering low partial pressure of carbon dioxide in NGCC emission gas. For accurate optimization, overall process model including both NGCC and the carbon capture process has been built with a simulation software. Then, optimization in which various performance indices such as carbon dioxide absorption rate, solvent regeneration rate and power loss in the NGCC are simultaneously reflected has been done. Especially, it is noticeable that this study focuses on not only the amount of energy consumption but also the absorption and regeneration performance of carbon capture process. The best result considering all the performance indices has been achieved when the reboiler temperature is 120 ℃ and the reason has been analyzed.