How to improve the energy savings in distillation and hybrid distillation-pervaporation systems

As the worldwide demand for energy is growing, engineers are facing a challenge to design plants with minimum energy requirements. Distillation is an energy intensive process regardless of the products being separated. Using as an example the separation of alcohol-aqueous mixture, this article describes some options applicable to both revamp and new installations where the reduction of energy consumption is achieved. The "Hybrid application is represented by the Water-Tetrahydrofurane (THF) separation comparing a conventional two column Pressure Swing Distillation(PSD) system with a pressure distillation using a membrane unit. The main focus is on energy savings for a given separation problem trough the introduction of membrane unit.