Design and optimization of Heat Integrated Distillation Column “HIDiC”

Distillation is the most applied separation technology. However, its major drawback is the low thermodynamic efficiency (typically around 10%). In response to environmental issues that concern energy consumption of distillation columns, HIDiC (heat integrated distillation column) is expected to have a large impact on energy saving. The aim of this study is to optimize the HIDiC sensitive parameters so as to minimize the Total Annual Cost (TAC). For this, a HIDiC simulation model is developed by using commercial software ProSimPlus. GA (Genetic Algorithm) is used to find the optimal HIDiC configuration where multivariable are optimized without initialization. Binary (Benzene/Toluene) separation case is examined. As a result, 7.4% and 13.9% TAC reductions are realized in comparison with the reported solutions in previous works.