Novel intensification strategy for the liquid-only transfer dividing wall column separating ternary mixtures based on the column grand composite curve

Song Zhongwen; Xing Chenghao; Wu Yanyang; Liu Guilian

doi:10.1016/j.cjche.2025.07.021

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Novel intensification strategy for the liquid-only transfer dividing wall column separating ternary mixtures based on the column grand composite curve

Updated：2026-03-13

- Novel intensification strategy for the liquid-only transfer dividing wall column separating ternary mixtures based on the column grand composite curve
- Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol. 89, Issue 1, Pages: 334-352(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
  School of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
- Author bio：
  
  Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: wyywitty@ecust.edu.cn(Y. Wu)
  guilianliui@mail.xjtu.edu.cn(G. Liu).
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1016/j.cjche.2025.07.021
  CLC：
- Received：12 May 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-07-26，
  
  Accepted：27 July 2025，
  
  Online First：28 October 2025，
  
  Published：2026-01
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Song Zhongwen, Xing Chenghao, Wu Yanyang, et al. Novel intensification strategy for the liquid-only transfer dividing wall column separating ternary mixtures based on the column grand composite curve[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2026, 89(1): 334-352.
DOI：

Song Zhongwen, Xing Chenghao, Wu Yanyang, et al. Novel intensification strategy for the liquid-only transfer dividing wall column separating ternary mixtures based on the column grand composite curve[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2026, 89(1): 334-352. DOI： 10.1016/j.cjche.2025.07.021.

摘要

Abstract

The liquid-only transfer dividing wall column (LDWC) offers a promising path for industrializing dividing wall columns by simplifying vapor split control. However

their energy efficiency is insufficient due to the addition of heat at the bottom and its removal at the top. Therefore

develop

ing an effective strategy to enhance the energy efficiency of the entire LDWC system is crucial. This work investigates the intensification of LDWC based on the column grand composite curve (CGCC) and thermodynamic analysis

proposing a novel intensification strategy to improve energy efficiency effectively. An optimization model with four blocks is developed to minimize the total annual cost (TAC) of the intensified LDWC. Energy

exergy

economic

and environmental analyses are used to evaluate its performance. Ternary mixtures with different easy separation indexes (ESI) are selected as illustrative examples. For mixtures with ESI ≤1

the optimal configuration involves partial feed preheating

compressors and intermediate reboilers on both side sections

along with optimized operating pressure. This setup leads to significant reductions in total energy consumption

TAC

and gas emissions by 43.80%

28.08%

and 42.85% for ESI = 1

and by 46.17%

29.06%

and 45.35% for ESI ＜1

respectively

when compared to conventional distillation sequences (CDS). For mixtures with ESI ＞1

the best performance is achieved by implementing partial feed preheating and modifications only to the right section. This results in reductions of 21.64% in energy consumption

16.26% in TAC

and 21.51% in gas emissions when compared to CDS. In all cases

the optimal configurations show the lowest lost work and minimum work

indicating an improved thermodynamic performance.

关键词

Keywords

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