Application of Dividing Wall Column in High Purity Cyclohexene Oxide Distillation

In this paper, application of dividing wall column (DWC) to high purity cyclohexene oxide distillation was studied. Simulation using Aspen plus software was done to compare the traditional two tower process with new process based on DWC. The results show that, with the same feed parameters, the DWC processes can achieve identical separation effect as the tow tower process with an energy saving of 14.5%, and capital investment and space saving can also be gained. In addition, only a reboiler is need in DWC process, residence time of these thermosensitive substances such as cyclohexene oxide inside high temperature region can be reduced, so can to avoid the frequently occurring heat decomposition to a great extent. So the simulation results indicate that a DWC would be a beneficial alternative to conventional two tower configuration for high purity cyclohexene oxide distillation.