• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.945-953
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• 2006

Though a fully thermally coupled distillation column consumes less energy than an original column, it is not widely implemented in practice due to its operational difficulty. A new fully thermally coupled distillation column is proposed for the operability improvement, and its performance is investigated. The main improvement is the separation of a main column to give an upper and lower columns and the installation of an intermediate heat exchanger between them to regulate the fluctuation of product compositions. A proper manipulation of column pressure in the separated main columns made easy vapor flow without a compressor. The operability improvement is examined in a hexane process from the dynamic simulation using a commercial design software HYSYS. The simulation results indicate that the coupling among inputs and outputs is loosened to make easy manipulation of product compositions in the proposed distillation system.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.1197-1201
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• 2006

In order to improve the operability in a fully thermally coupled distillation column the main column is separated into an upper and a lower column, and its design method is explained. With a distillation experiment using a two-inch column the operability of the proposed column is examined. Readily available methanol, ethanol and propanol are used as the feed, and the experimental result is compared with that of the HYSYS simulation. It is found from the experiment that the recovery ranges between 58.8% and 68% and the distillation efficiency is lower than that of the simulation. consumes less energy than an original column, it is not widely implemented in practice due to its operational difficulty. However, it is proved that the proposed distillation column can be operated without compressors and it can be practically utilized.

• 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.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.842-846
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• 2002

Design of gas concentration process using a fully thermally coupled distillation is conducted with the commercial design software HYSYS. Detailed procedure of the design is explained, and the performance of the process is compared with that of a conventional system A structural design is exercised for the design convenience. The design outcome indicates that the procedure is simple and efficient. The structural information yielded from equilibrium distillation gives an easy formulation of distillation system which is the initial input required from the setup of the distillation system The performance of the new process indicates that an energy saving of 17.6 % is obtained compared with the conventional process while total number of trays maintains at the same.

• 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.

• 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.46 no.5
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• pp.892-897
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• 2008

A new ethanol dehydration process utilizing a thermally coupled distillation column is proposed to reduce the energy requirement of the existing dehydration processes. An entrainer of benzene is used in the proposed system having the column profile similar to the equilibrium composition profile for the maximum distillation column efficiency, and the feed composition is arranged to close to the boundary of different distillation regions. It is found that the proposed distillation system gives some 18% of energy saving over the existing process. In addition, design guidelines are suggested for other azeotropic distillation process.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.2445-2450
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• 2011

Design of reformate fractionation process using a fully thermally coupled distillation is conducted with commercial design software Aspen HYSYS. Detailed procedure of the design is explained, and the performance of the process is compared with that of a conventional system. The design outcome indicates that the procedure is simple and efficient. The performance of the new process indicates that an energy saving of 12.2% is obtained compared with the conventional process while total number of trays maintains at the same.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3774-3778
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• 2012

A dynamic simulation of a fully thermally coupled distillation is conducted for the design of a possible operation scheme, and its performance is examined with an example process of reformate fractionation process. The outcome of the dynamic simulation indicates that the column can be operated by using a $3{\times}3$ control structure. The structure consists of three controlled variables of the compositions of overhead, side products and bottom and three manipulated variables of the flow rate of reflux, liquid split ratio between a main column and a prefractionator and steam.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.327-331
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• 2009

A thermally coupled distillation system is constructed using two columns used in a conventional two column system, and its operability is examined by investigating the dynamic behavior. For the control of three product specifications, the step response test is performed and a $3{\times}3$ control structure using flow rates of overhead and side products and vapor boilup is suggested. The performance of the proposed control system indicates that the specification control of bottom product is the most difficult but the operation of the proposed system is available.