Research · 2017–2020
Heat-Integrated Pressure-Swing Distillation
A simulation study of pressure-swing distillation and four heat-integrated variants for recovering high-purity ethylene glycol and 1,2-butanediol.
Context & problem
Ethylene glycol and 1,2-butanediol form a pressure-sensitive azeotropic system.
This creates a challenging separation problem.
What I did
My role
I was the first-listed of two co-equal authors; the published CRediT statement credits me with Investigation and Visualization.
Approach
The work used Aspen Plus to develop and compare pressure-swing distillation configurations, including heat-integrated alternatives, with thermodynamic, energy, economic, and modeled-emissions evaluation.
Contribution
I was the first-listed of two co-equal authors. The published CRediT statement records my contributions as Investigation and Visualization.
Outcomes & evidence
Under the study assumptions, full heat-integrated PSD reduced simulated total annual cost by 35% relative to the optimized basic process, while bottom-flash PSD reduced modeled CO₂ emissions by 95% against the same baseline.
Evidence
Heat Integrated Technology Assisted Pressure-Swing Distillation for the Mixture of Ethylene Glycol and 1,2-Butanediol. Separation and Purification Technology 241 (2020) 116740. No repository PDF is hosted or linked.
Methods & next direction
- Tools
- Aspen Plus
- Thermodynamics
- NRTL
- Process
- Pressure-swing distillation · heat integration
- Optimization
- Sequential iterative optimization
- Evaluation
- Total annual cost · modeled CO₂
Next direction
This project is a foundation for the interest in representing first-principles engineering logic in traceable software and decision-support tools.
Roadmap