Saving energy in distillation towers by feed splitting

It is a common procedure to save energy in industrial distillation towers by preheating the feed with heat recovered from the bottom product. It will be demonstrated theoretically, and shown by simulation means, that if, before entering the unit, the feed is split into two streams, and only one of them is preheated, further savings of energy (up to 50%) can be achieved. The use of a steady state process simulator like Hysys(TM) is precious for a fast and reliable determination of the optimum split ratio and feed tray. A typical example of application is given and the use of Hysys(TM) shown. The results for the optimization of the split ratio are provided showing the economical impact of the proposed solution. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.