Energy Saving Optimization For Molasses Alcohol Distillation Process And Relative Key Euipments

Alcohol is a kind of important organic solvent and chemical material.It occupies an important position in national economy and has been widely used in areas of food industry,chemical industry,medical treatment,electronic industry,cosmetic production and so on.Molasses is a by-product of sugar production while used as the raw material of alcohol production.Therefore,using molasses to produce alcohol is a recycling of waste and of important significance to environmental protection as well as energy saving.Alcohol production is a kind of energy intensive process and the consumption of steam and cooling water for distillation occupies 60-70%of the total energy consumption.Therefore,reduction of the energy consumption for distillation is the key to reduce the energy consumption of alcohol production.However,the traditional distillation process of molasses alcohol has the disadvantages of huge energy consumption,low quality and lagging technology for equipments.It is necessary to change the current status under the situation of energy crisis.The scale deposit in the raw distillator of molasses alcohol seriously affects the efficiency of distillation and the cost of equipments maintenance.In order to solve the problem,a new type of efficient anti-clogging round fixed-valve tray was adopted in the improved process which was developed by Zhejiang University of Technology Design Research Institute.The hydrodynamic performances of the new fixed-valve tray were tested and compared with the traditional fixed-valve tray.The simulation of traditional three-column distillation process of molasses alcohol was conducted with the software Aspen Plus.A four-column distillation process was proposed by process recombination theory based on the analysis of simulation results.The simulation and optimization of the four-column process were conducted with the software,and the processing parameters,stream data and heat duty were obtained.Based on the simulation results of the four-column distillation process,the energy-saving heat network is designed under the guidance of improved pinch technology.The composite curves are plotted based on the stream information and the pinch point is obtained.Then the pinch technology is used to conduct the integration of heat pump distillation and confirm the appropriate place of heat pump in the energy system.Finally,a new energy-saving distillation process of alcohol is obtained.According to the lagging technology for equipments of distillation,the key equipments are improved.The process is recombined and the operating parameters are optimized based on the improved pinch technology.The technology of heat pump is applied to get a new efficient and energy-saving alcohol distillation process.