Comparative study of Heat Pump Assisted Distillation Column and Its Application for Pressure Swing Distillation Process

Two of the well-known heat pumps assisted distillation column scheme are direct vapor recompression and bottom flashing. The comparison between the two schemes was systematically studied for binary mixture of non-azeotropic benzene-toluene system. Simulation was carried out using Aspen Plus software. The best scheme was selected based on economic evaluation (utility cost and TAC reduction). The application of both schemes was also studied for pressure swing distillation process. Pressure swing distillation is one of the most common methods for separating pressure-sensitive azeotropic system. Direct vapor recompression scheme and bottom flashing scheme can be applied to enhance the energy savings. The minimum-boiling homogeneous azeotropic mixture of methyl acetate-methanol was chosen as representative in process simulation.