Operation of a bench-scale ideal heat integrated distillation column (HIDiC): an experimental study

Abstract Experimental study of an ideal heat integrated distillation column (HIDiC) is introduced in this work. It is found that the ideal HIDiC can be operated very smoothly, with no special difficulties compared with its conventional counterparts. The higher energy efficiency of the ideal HIDiC is confirmed by the bench-scale experiments. Reflux-free and/or reboil-free operations of the ideal HIDiC are also demonstrated to be feasible by the experiments.