OPERATIONAL DESIGN AND IMPROVEMENT OF CONVENTIONAL BATCH DISTILLATION AND MIDDLE-VESSEL BATCH DISTILLATION

Abstract Conventional batch distillation and middle-vessel batch distillation were studied for the separation of the ternary system of cyclohexane/n-heptane/toluene, which has low relative volatilities. The modified variable and constant reflux operations were applied in the conventional batch distillation. Two control structures were used: one of which was referred to as the composition control structure with a modified level-set point, and the other was referred to as the flowrate-limiting control structure. Thus, the middle-vessel batch distillation was able to simultaneously separate the components of the ternary mixture. Comparing the two control structures showed that the flowrate-limiting control structure was better than the composition control structure with a modified level-set point in terms of their applicability. Disturbances were introduced to assess the controllability of the flowrate-limiting control structure. The dynamic responses demonstrated that the control structure performed well. The results showed that the modified conventional batch distillation and middle-vessel batch distillation increased the purity of the separated components compared to previous studies.