Journal of Chemical Engineering & Process Technology
Open Access

Abstract

Modeling and Simulation of a Hybrid Process (Pervaporation+Distillation) using MATLAB

SohailRasool Lone, Syed Akhlaq Ahmad and Vimal Kumar

This paper reports the modeling and simulation of a hybrid process, based on the combination of distillation and pervaporation, for the separation of azeotropic mixture of alcohol and ether. Pervaporation has emerged as one of the most active areas in the membrane research, and the pervaporation process has been shown to be an indispensable component for chemical separations. Pervaporation is more suitable for the separation of azeotropic or constant boiling mixtures which otherwise are difficult to separate by ordinary distillation. Although distillation is the most widely used technique for the separation of liquid mixtures, however the distillation separation of the mixtures with an azeotropic composition or close boiling mixtures is energetically expensive. A hybrid process exploits the advantages of pervaporation and distillation, while the negative aspects are minimized. Simulation tasks were carried out with MATLAB and the results of alternative process configurations that result from the relative location of separation technologies have been compared on the basis of the required membrane area.