(79b) Distillation Technology: Is It Really Mature As We Approach 2020?

It has become fashionable in many circles to debate the status of an issue for the year 2020. Clearly many of these predictive efforts are valuable, but as the refrain goes “predictions are very difficult, especially when they concern the future”. So, I thought I would talk about Distillation in 2020 as it stands in 2018, since really, changes in the next year and a half are probably already on their way.

Distillation is considered by many a “mature” technology. I don’t know what that really means. Distillation is a mass transfer process, regulated by thermodynamics, and subject to the laws of conventional physics (both static and dynamic). We, as a whole understand the fundamentals but that does not make it a mature field. Descriptive methods of Distillation based exclusively on first principles and without empirical fits are not available still after several decades of research. We still rely on testing and empirical observations largely to develop and describe the field. We truly do not know what development will come around the corner. But, Distillation is such a prevalent process in Industry globally, that even very small improvements are capable of resulting in very large economic and sustainability benefits.

I asked someone one time why was it that the large research funding institutions did not fund Distillation Research. The answer was swift: “Because it is a Mature Technology”. My next question was “How do you know it is a Mature Technology”. Just as swiftly the response came: “Because no research is done in Distillation”. This would be funny if it wasn’t so prejudicial. Maturity of a Technology is not based on understanding the principles that rule it. It is based on how much progress can be made and what remains to be learned. Through this latter lens, Distillation is not mature and still has plenty of room for progress. Let us examine some of the progress the field has made in the last say 30 years in the following areas

Thermodynamics and Thermodynamic Efficiency
Process Configurations
Process Simulations
Process Control
Column Internals

Column Peripherals (Heat Transfer)
Reliability and Availability
Operation in Harsh Environments
Diagnostics

I will discuss each of these topics. Mention some of the great strides we have made in the field and elaborate on some of the strides we are still to make. Table 1 summarizes just some of the advances we have seen in distillation in the last 25 years. I have had the privilege to witness them all first hand. Also, I remember 25 years ago also hearing the comment about Distillation is a Mature Technology. Well, the table illustrates how a so called “Mature” technology has progressed and all these items were in the research phase in the last 25 years or so