Micro-scale Distillation – I: Simulation
Author(s)
M. Fanelli, R. Arora, A. Glass, R. Litt, D. Qiu, L. Silva,
A. L. Tonkovich & D. Weidert
Abstract
Microchannel technology as applied to chemical processing has resulted in
impressive improvements in performance thresholds. Studies published for more
than a decade show that enhanced performance in chemical reactors can be
largely attributed to the reduction of transport distances. Chemical distillation is
now emerging as a new area for the application of microchannel technology.
A simplified method for simulating a microchannel distillation process has
been developed and validated with experimental data. Both simulation and
experiments show that the height of a theoretical transfer unit for the separation
of hexane and cyclohexane in a microchannel distillation unit is reduced to
centimetres. Vapour-side resistance was found to control mass transfer for the
cases considered. The current simulation can serve as a tool for optimizing and
refining the design of multiphase microchannel processes.
Keywords: distillation, simulation, separation, vapour-liquid, microchannel.
1 Introduction / background
Microchannel technology as applied to chemical processing has led to
impressive improvements in performance thresholds. Several studies presented
throughout the last decade show that reduction in transport distances
significantly enhances the performance of chemical reactors. Reviews by Boger
et al. [1], Hessel et al. [2], and Kreutzer et al. [3] provide excellent summaries of
some of the key research and development efforts.
The Battelle Memorial Institute has conducted research in microchannel
distillation since the early 2000s and holds U.S. and international patents in the
field (Battelle [4–6]). A 2004 study by Wootton and deMello (Wootton [7])
Keywords
distillation, simulation, separation, vapour-liquid, microchannel.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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