Feasibility Evaluation of a Novel Middle Vapor Recompression Distillation Column

Internal heat integrated technology was developed to improve the thermodynamic efficiency of distillation columns to save energy and increase profit. A novel internal heat integrated distillation column, middle vapor recompression distillation column (MVRC), was proposed and simultaneously investigated in comparison to the vapor recompression distillation column (VRC) and the heat integrated distillation column (HIDiC). Temperature difference from top to bottom (Delta T-CDiC ), operating pressure (P-CDiC ), and feed state in the conventional distillation columns (CDiC) were considered when studying the feasibility and flexibility of these three columns. Moreover, the economic evaluation was completed by calculating the total annual cost (TAC) for the selected economic model. The results show that the MVRC is a formidable internal heat integrated distillation column configuration with a wide range of applications due to its operational flexibility.