(82c) an Insider’s View of Dividing Wall Columns in Operation

An Insider’s View of Dividing Wall Columns in Operation

 

Manish Bhargava - GTC Technology US, LLC

Suzuki Norihito - TonenGeneral, Japan

With a renewed focus on improving separation efficiency in distillation processes, Dividing Wall Columns (DWC) provide a promising alternative to meet the refining industry’s current requirements. This presentation provides case studies of implementations of DWC technology at three different global locations with different objectives.

The first case study in Japan focuses on reduction of energy. The grassroots DWC column was installed to recovery mix-xylenes from a full reformate feed, with increased emphasis on heat integration for energy savings. To improve the energy economics further, the overhead of the DWC column has been heat integrated with existing upstream columns.

The second case study in India was a revamp of an existing two-diameter naphtha splitter column that eliminated the need for a second column in series to meet the requirements of improved product specifications.

The third case study, also installed in India, reduces the plot space requirement by eliminating the second column. Up until now, all operating units had been middle dividing wall columns. This is a unique case of a top dividing wall column used for producing food grade hexane.

Manish Bhargava

Licensing Manager - Advanced Distillation Systems, mbhargava@gtctech.com

GTC Technology US, LLC

900 Threadneedle Street, Suite 800

Houston, TX 77079