Performance analysis of a heat integrated column with heat pumping

In this work, a heat pump system in the form of vapor recompression (VRC) is introduced in the dividing wall column (DWC) to further improve its thermal efficiency performance. It is a fact that the temperature difference is reasonably large between the top and bottom of a DWC, which typically produces at least a single side product. This may lead to a very large compression ratio (CR), with which, the operation of VRC in the DWC becomes quite complicated and may not be economically so attractive. To improve this situation, the vapor recompression mechanism is further proposed between the side stream and reboiler drum of the DWC column. Utilizing the latent heat of a vapor stream from an intermediate tray in liquid reboiling of the stripper, this side vapor recompressed DWC (SVR-DWC) configuration can reduce the utility consumption and thus improves its energetic and economic potential substantially. This proposed thermally integrated scheme is finally illustrated by a ternary system.