org/acer
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Received 28 May, 2013; Revised 20 October, 2013; Accepted 16 April, 2014; Published 24 June, 2014
2014 Science and Engineering Publishing Company
Abstract
A novel heat integrated distillation column (HIDiC) has been
developed to enrich the yield of fermented bioethanol. The
double-tube HIDiC column places the stripping section
inside the inner tube and the rectifying section in the outer
annular space. A dry vacuum pump placed between the
sections makes the boiling temperature in the stripping
section lower than that in the rectifying section, and the
fermented mash (5 wt% ethanol) is concentrated to > 90 wt%
ethanol near the azeotropic point at a low reflux ratio
(0.378). When the stripping section pressure falls to 225 mm
Hg while the rectifying section pressure is held at 1 atm, no
live steam is required for the enriching process. Even if the
preheater heat duty and the power requirement of the
vacuum pump are considered, the depressurization of this
HIDiC system achieves the energy-saving target (< 4 MJ/LEtOH) of the NEDO project.
Keywords
HIDiC; Bio-ethanol; Energy Saving; Depressurized Distillation
Introduction
This research was conducted within the Consolidated
Bio-Processing (CBP) governmental project, which
was supported by the New-Energy and Industrial
Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of
Japan. The project set a total production cost goal for
the production of 1 L of dehydrated ethanol as biofuel
at JPY 40/L-EtOH (USD 0.4/L-EtOH). CBP also aimed
at a 50% reduction of CO2 emissions relative to
gasoline. But reducing the cost of producing fuel
ethanol depends not only on the enzyme consumption
of fermentation from soft biomass but also on the
energy consumption of the distillation process.
Distillation technology is useful for separation but
does not permit a dramatic reduction of energy. With
consideration of the distribution of energy required for
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Pais .
The inner column serves as the rectifying section and
the outer annular space as the stripping section. Both
sections are equipped with our original dual-flow
trays Lift Trays.
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50
Column
Stripping section (inner column)
Lift Tray
Double-tube type
150 mm ID, 6.8 m
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Reflux ratio
variable
Distillation condition
Feed rate (L/h) initial temperature: 30
ethanol concentration (wt%)
feed temperature :
Overhead product
ethanol concentration (wt%)
ethanol recovery (%)
Bottom product
ethanol concentration (wt%)
Heat duty (Live steam instead of reboiler)
Preheater heat duty (live steam supply)
variable
none
variable
variable
6.4 (assumed)
Vi +1 + Li 1 =
Vi + Li
200
#2
Vi +1 yi +1 + Li 1 xi 1 =
Vi yi + Li xi
#1
13 ideal plates
740
10
variable
<0.1
variable
Plate efficiency(%)
Structured packing
>90
>95
34 plates,
(17 ideal plates)
50 (assumed)
50 (= 49.35 kg/h)
5.0
69
(Stripping section)
Vi +1 HV ,i +1 + Li 1 H L ,i 1 + Qint,i = Vi HV ,i + Li H L ,i
Qint,i U Ai (Tr ,i Ts ,i )
=
Vi Vi +1 =
Qint,i / s ,i
(Rectifying section)
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Vi +1 + Li 1 =
Vi + Li
Vi +1 yi +1 + Li 1 xi 1 =
Vi yi + Li xi
Vi +1 HV ,i +1 + Li 1 H L ,i 1 Qint,i = Vi HV ,i + Li H L ,i
=
Qint,i U Ai (Tr ,i Ts ,i )
Qint,i / r ,i
Vi Vi +1 =
(Dry vacuum pump)
=
Pwtheo V1 ( EV 1out EV 1in )
mm.
(Live steam)
where
ith stage,
xi , yi
are
the
ethanol
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U=
Qint
A T
56
=
U
Qint
(22.19 / 3600)(106 )
=
= 324.9 W/m2/K
A T
(2.357)(8.05)
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Aug., 2009.
Dr. Kataoka was a professor in the
Department of Chemical Engineering
at Kobe University, Japan for 35 years
until 2003. During that term, he served
as Dean of Engineering for three years
from 1994 and Vice-president for four
years from 1997. He served as 1999
Vice-president and as 2000 President
of The Society of Chemical Engineers,
Japan. (SCEJ).
He received The SCEJ Award in 2003. After retirement from
Kobe University, he joined Kansai Chemical Engineering
(KCE) in 2003 and served as Executive Director for nine
years. He is now the Director of the R&D Laboratory of
KCE..His interest is energy conservation technologies in
chemical engineering unit operation systems.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Characteristics
of
Heat
Integrated
Petroleum
Distillation.
Distillation
&
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