Energy saving in distillation columns: the Linde column revisited

摘要

Linde double column is a smart device to separate gas mixtures without energy consumption at condenser and reboiler. The sections operate at different pressures to achieve a thermal integration in the middle of the whole tower, allowing energy savings that in the case of air separation are total. Calculations performed using Aspen Hysys~R and Icarus~R show that the same distillation scheme can be applied to other systems but sometimes it is necessary to add an auxiliary cooler that limits the advantage of the proposed scheme.