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Design of distillation system for purification of ethanol

1 .. 2 1, 2 . 10330 /: 02-218-6878 E-mail: 1 u_kanchanabut@hotmail.com, 2 amornchai_a@chula.ac.th

99.5% Aspen HYSYS , : , , ,

find the suitable condition which is able to optimize energy consumption. And simulation results show that new condition can have significantly lower energy demands than common units. Keywords: Ethanol, Distillation, Heat integration, Energy optimization.

1. Introduction
Presently, ethanol is accepted to be an important renewable fuel and its use can reduce negative environmental impacts originated by the worldwide utilization of biomass fuels. From the production process of ethanol, it can be seen that the aqueous solution of ethanol obtained from the fermentation is concentrated to obtain hydrous ethanol to be utilized as a fuel and an oxygenate compound for adding to gasoline. The ethanol process consists of 4 major unit operations: liquefaction and saccharification, fermentation, distillation and dehydration section to reach 99.5%v/v. The separation of azeotropic mixtures is a process demands large input of energy, more than half of the total energy used. In this case fractional distillation is chosen to produce 95%v/v ethanol concentration because it gets the most purification and high efficiency and commonly used with high capacity. But if compare on the basis of energy requirements it is still extremely high. A considerable amount of energy supplied to the reboiler was wasted at unrecoverable temperatures in the condenser. In this case distillation process is first priority section to optimize [1] the energy by using commercial simulator Aspen HYSYS. The simulations will be varied based on related major key parameters such as number of stage and heat transfer area to find the suitable condition which is able to optimize energy consumption.

Abstract
Ethanol is one of the most important renewable fuels which is transformation of sugar or starch to ethanol by fermenting organisms and purified to 99.5%v/v by distillation. Tapioca is one of the famous raw materials used to produce ethanol. This process also consume huge amount of energy especially in purification process. In order to analyze the process viability, distillation processes are simulated and parametrically optimized to reduce energy consumptions. Simulations are carried out in steady state using the commercial simulator Aspen HYSYS. The simulations vary based on these key parameters: reflux ratio of mash column (R1), volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of mash column (XD1)and distillate flow rate of rectifying column (D2) to

2. Theories 2.1. Process Description 156

CW CW TD1 Tray1 F,ZF R1 QC1 TD2 Tray1 R2

QC2

D2,xD2

Feedtray

D1,xD1

Feedtray

Trayn TB1 QR1 Steam Steam B1,xB1 B2 ,xB2 Trayn TB2 QR2

Fig.1 Process Flow Diagram of Ethanol Process The ethanol process consists of 4 major unit operations: 2.1.1. Liquefaction & Saccharification Heat up the mash to 90 oC, liquefying the starch. And enzymes are added to the mash to convert the starch to dextrose. 2.2.2.Fermentation Yeast is added to the mash to ferment the sugars. During this process, the yeast eats the sugars, and in the process produces heat, ethanol 10%v/v and carbon dioxide. 2.2.3.Distillation After fermentation the mash is called beer. The beer contains approximately 10% alcohol by volume and still has many impurities. These impurities are removed during the distillation phase until pure alcohol with at least 95% alcohol by volume is obtained. The alcohol moves on to dehydration. The stillage is processed into distiller grains. 2.2.4.Dehydration The alcohol circulates through a molecular sieve to capture the last bit of water. At the end of this process, the ethanol obtains at least 99.5% v/v. 2.2.5.Storage Finally, the ethanol is pumped into storage tanks. It is then ready for shipment to gasoline terminals or retailers.

Mash column Heatsource

Rectifyingcolumn

Fig. 2 Simplified conventional distillation flowsheet lowest temperature (TD). Interestingly, the thermal energy recovered at the condenser cannot be reused for heating other flows in the same distillation unit since the temperature of the coolant is usually sufficiently lower than that of the flows inside the column. Heat is added at the reboiler and thrown away at the condenser. Actually the energy is degraded over the temperature range of TB-TD and this is the prime reason of thermodynamic inefficiency of the conventional distillation technology [2]. For heat integrated distillation column

2.2 Heat distribution in distillation section

For conventional distillation column Conventionally supplied at the bottom reboiler to evaporate a liquid mixture and is lost when liquefying the overhead vapor at the reflux condenser. Actually, heat is added at the highest temperature (TB) in the column, whereas that is removed at the

Fig. 3 Simplified heat integrated distillation flowsheet In the HIDiC scheme, the overhead vapor of the rectifying column enters the reboiler of mash column as heat source. The mash feed is preheated by vapor of mash column before entering to mash column. So steam and cooling water consumption can be saved.

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3. Experiments
The objective function was defined by considering the ratio of the heat duty of the reboiler (QR1+QR2) and the specified production of ethanol (D) [3]. The volume fraction of the ethanol was fixed at 0.95 at top of the rectifying column. The objective function was inserted by means of the Aspen HYSYS. The procedure starts with the simulation of conventional distillation column and heat integrated distillation column which uses data as shown in Table 1 respectively. The total amount of heat rejected from the mash column (QR1) and rectifying column (QR2) will be compared. Table 1. Data for simulation conventional and heat integrated distillation column
Paramters
Feed flow rate (F), kmol/h Number of stages for mash column (N1) Feed stage to mash column (NF1) Number of stages for rectifying column (N2) Feed stage to rectifying column (NF2) Mash feed temperature (TF), oC Volume fraction of ethanol in mash feed (ZF) Volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of mash column (X D1) Volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of rectifying column (X D2) Reflux ratio mash column (R1) Reflux ratio rectifying column (R2)

4. Compare and conclude for the optimized design min QR/D

Conduct the design of the heat integrated distillation column

Sensitivity test (R1, R2, XD1, feed stage and D2)

Simulate to optimize energy consumption (by vary R1, XD1 and D2)

Value
2335 17 6 25 13 30 0.08 0.6 0.95 3 200

Compare and conclude for optimized design min QR/D

Obtain the optimization process

Fig. 4 Procedure for design optimized process for heat integrated distillation column

QR = QR1 + QR2
5. Obtain the optimization process

(1)

And then the simulation uses to design optimized process for heat integrated distillation column [4]. A simple procedure is shown in Fig 4. 1. Conduct the design of the heat integrated distillation column : determine the number of stages, feed location, feed flow rate, feed temperature, mole fraction of feed in, output flow rate, mole fraction of output and reflux ratio. 2. Sensitivity test : evaluate the influence of the main variables and to decide which variable should be manipulated. 3. Simulate to optimize energy consumption : vary the main variables which get from sensitivity test as shown in Table.2 (Reflux ratio of mash column (R1), volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of mash column (XD1) and distillate flow rate of rectifying column (D2)) [5-6].

Table 2. Design of experiment to design optimized process for heat integrated distillation column

Case
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

R1
0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 1 1 1 1

XD1
0.7 0.8 0.7 0.8 0.7 0.8 0.7 0.8

D2 (kmol/h)
60 60 70 70 60 60 70 70

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4. Results and discussions 4.1 Simulation of conventional and heat integrated distillation column
Results of simulation compare between conventional and heat integrated distillation column (HIDiC) was shown in Table 3 that HIDiC consumed less energy than conventional. To reach as objective function the simulation will be based on process parameters and configuration of heat integrated distillation column. Table 3. Comparison of specific heat duty between conventional and heat integrated distillation column
Parameters
Mash feed rate (F), kmol/h Reflux ratio mash column(R1) Reflux ratio rectifying column(R2) Volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of mash column (XD1) Volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of rectifying column (XD2) Distillate flowrate of rectifying column (D2), kmol/h Specific heat duty (QR/D), GJ/mol

From the sensitivity analysis it can conclude that only 3 parameters which are reflux ratio of mash column (R1), volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of mash column (XD1) and distillate flow rate of rectifying column (D2) effected to energy consumption. To optimize distillation process only these 3 parameters will be varied and the design of experiment is shown as table 2.

Conventional
2335 3 200 0.6 0.95 70 1.203

HIDiC
2335 3 200 0.6 0.95 70 0.974

Fig. 5a Relation between reflux ratio of mash column and specific heat duty

4.2 Sensitivity Analysis

The objective of this process is to evaluate the influence of main variables on the energy consumption, to decide which variables should be optimized [7]. And fig. 5a-e show the effect of reflux ratio of mash column (R1), reflux ratio of rectifying column (R2), volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of mash column (XD1), distillate flow rate of rectifying column (D2) and feed stage of mash column (NF1) on the specific heat duty while the other parameters are constant. Relationship of each main parameter and specific heat duty can be described as below; More reflux ratio of mash column (R1), more energy consumes. Vary of rectifying columns reflux ratio (R2) do not effect much to total specific heat duty. More ethanol composition of distillate of mash column (XD1), less energy consumes. More distillate flow rate of rectifying column (D2), less energy consumes. Vary of feed stage of mash column (NF1) do not effect much to total specific heat duty. Fig. 5c Relation between ethanol composition of distillate of mash column and specific heat duty

Fig. 5b Relation between reflux ratio of rectifying column and specific heat duty

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4.4 Result of optimization

The results of simulation by vary the main influenced variable to design the optimization process are shown in table 5. This operating condition optimized energy consumption as our objective. Table 5. Optimized operating condition
Paramters Value
2335 17 6 25 13 30 0.08 0.7 0.95 70 0.5 200 0.57

Fig. 5d Relation between distillate flow rate of rectifying column and specific heat duty

Feed flow rate (F), kmol/h Number of stages for mash column (N1) Feed stage to mash column (N F1) Number of stages for rectifying column (N2) Feed stage to rectifying column (NF2) Mash feed temperature (TF), C Volume fraction of ethanol in mash feed (ZF) Volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of mash column (XD1) Volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of rectifying column (X D2) Distillate flow rate (D2), kmol/h Reflux ratio mash column (R1) Reflux ratio rectifying column (R2) Specific heat duty (QR/D), GJ/kmol
o

Fig. 5e Relation between feed stage of mash column and specific heat duty

4.3 . Compare and conclude for the optimized design min QR/D
The final result shows that operation condition of case 3 can optimize energy consumption for ethanol production which is on product specification. The existing operating condition consumes 0.974 GJ/kmol but the optimized operating condition consumes only 0.57 GJ/kmol or half of existing one. More details are shown in table 4. Table 4. Results of optimization
Case 1 2 R1 0.5 0.5 XD1 0.7 0.8 D2 (kmol/h) XD2 QR/D (GJ/kmol) 60 0.95 0.628 60 Not suitable condition

5. Conclusion
In this research, reflux ratio of mash column (R1), volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of mash column (XD1) and distillate flow rate of rectifying column (D2) are strongly effect parameters to energy consumption of ethanols distillation. It can be optimized by simulation tools as Aspen HYSYS program which is also widely used in other industries. The sensitivity analysis is one of the important methods to verify the strong influence parameters.

6. Acknowledgement
I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis advisor, Assistant Professor Amornchai Arpornwichanop for his comments and suggestion to the research work.

3
4 5 6 7 8

0.5
0.5 1 1 1 1

0.7
0.8 0.7 0.8 0.7 0.8

70
70 60 60 70 70

0.95

0.57

7. Nomenclature
F ZF D1 D2 XD1 XD2 Feed flow rate Volume fraction of ethanol in mash feed Distillate flow rate of mash column Distillate flow rate of rectifying column Volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of mash column Volume fraction of ethanol in distillate of rectifying column

Not suitable condition 0.95 0.683 0.95 0.594 0.95 0.617 0.95 0.757

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B1 B2 XB1 XB2 R1 R2 QC1 QC2 QR1 QR2 TD1 TD2 TB1 TB2 QR/D

Bottom flow rate of mash column Bottom flow rate of rectifying column Volume fraction of ethanol in bottom of mash column Volume fraction of ethanol in bottom of rectifying column Reflux ratio of mash column Reflux ratio of rectifying column Heat duty of mash columns condenser Heat duty of rectifying columns condenser Heat duty of mash columns reboiler Heat duty of rectifying columns reboiler Temperature at top of mash column Temperature at top of rectifying column Temperature at bottom of mash column Temperature at bottom of rectifying column Specific heat duty of reboiler

systematic procedure using a process simulator, Chemical engineering research and design 548 (1010-1016), Jun 11, 2010. Unchalee Kanchanabut studied for Master Degree of Chemical engineering, Chulalongkorn University. She is interested in ethanol production and purification process.

8. Reference
[1] F. Friedler Process integration, modeling and optimization for energy saving and pollution reduction, Applied thermal engineering 30 (2270-2280), Jul 15, 2010. [2] A. Jana Heat integrated distillation operation, Applied energy 87 (1477-1494), Nov 12, 2009. [3] B. Suphanit Design of internally heat-integrated distillation column (HIDiC) : Uniform heat transfer area versus uniform heat distribution, Energy 35 (1505-1514), Dec 28, 2009. [4] M.A. Gadalla Internal heat integrated distillation column (iHIDiCs)- New systematic design methodology, Chemical engineering research and design 87 (1658-1666), Jun 13, 2009. [5] H. Chen, K. Huang and S. Wang A novel simplified configuration for an ideal heat-integrated distillation column (ideal HIDiC), Separation and Purification Technology 73 (230242), Apr 5, 2010 [6] X. Zhang, K. Huang, H. Chen and S. Wang Comparing three configurations of the externally heat-integrated double distillation columns (EHIDDiCs), Computer and Chemical engineering 4150 (1016-1023), Nov 24, 2010. [7] M. Feitosa de Figueiredo, B. Pontual Guedes, J. Manzi Manzi Monteiro de Araujo, L. Gonzaga Sales Vasconcelos and R. Pereira Brito Optimal design of extractive distillation columns-A

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