Análise da eficiência energética em colunas de destilação para uma mistura de benzeno, tolueno e o-xileno

Abstract

With the growing global concern over climate change, there is a shift from focusing primarily on fuel consumption to prioritizing energy efficiency. This shift highlights the need not only to reduce fuel use but also to emphasize energy savings and valorization. In this context, distillation columns must optimize the heat used in their heat exchangers. This work presents an analysis that includes thermodynamic assessments, studies of various types of distillation columns, simulations, optimization, and economic evaluations (CAPEX and OPEX). The methodology was applied to a mixture of benzene, toluene, and o-xylene under specific feed conditions. The best thermodynamic model for this ternary system was identified as NRTL. The study examined distillation with direct sequence, indirect sequence, and dividing wall columns (DWC), with DWC proving to be the most economical according to the simulations performed in ProSim. It is important to note that while the presented methodology is applicable to other ternary mixtures and feed conditions, results may vary.