Simulation And Commercial Design Of Ethyl Acetate/N-Hexane Distillation System

Batch process is so complicated that the separation quality is greatly influenced by the process control ability. In order to improve the capacity of ethyl acetate/n-hexane batch separation system, a continuous distillation system is designed to meet the demand of energy saving and high efficiency.Vapor liquid equilibrium data of binary systems, ethyl acetate/n-hexane,ethyl acetate/ methanol, n-hexane/methanol is determined in the thesis. Non Random Two-liquid liquid activity model is used to depict the vapor liquid equilibrium performance. Binary interaction parameters of NRTL are regressed in Aspen Plus. Aspen Plus simulation software is also used as the platform for whole process simulation. Operating parameters are optimized as well.The simulation results show that to distillate ethyl acetate and n-hexane system using methanol as the azeotropic agent can work. Three-tower sequential separation is used. Sensitivity analysis and whole process simulation are conducted. The simulation data, including material balance and energy balance,can provide the basis of commercial design and play an important role in training employees.