چكيده به لاتين
Abstract: One of the most critical sections in all industrial units is the separation section. The most common method of separation is the distillation process. However, in addition to its widespread application in industries, this process is considered one of the most energy-consuming sections of any industrial unit. Moreover, distillation columns, due to their high energy consumption, pose significant environmental challenges. Today, with the increasing use of energy carriers, the rise in global energy prices, and the strict regulations of international organizations regarding greenhouse gas emissions, efforts are being made to find solutions for energy efficiency in the distillation process. The reduction of energy consumption in distillation operations not only affects the cost of products but also contributes to environmental sustainability by mitigating environmental issues. Given the importance of distillation operations, researchers have proposed various methods over time to reduce energy consumption in distillation. Today, researchers have presented different structures, including reactive distillation, which integrates reaction and separation in one step to enhance efficiency and selectivity, thereby reducing energy consumption. Additionally, the use of dividing wall columns has gained attention among researchers as an effective method to reduce construction costs, energy consumption, and improve the performance of distillation columns. Pinch technology has also been employed to examine heat exchanger networks and explore the interconnectedness of various process units, becoming a focus of researchers. In this thesis, an overview of research conducted in the field of distillation columns, complex columns, integration methods for energy improvement, superstructures for sequence selection, and pinch technology is presented. The necessity of employing various methods is then discussed. Subsequently, for the industrial unit producing ethanol amine, possible sequences are generated using the separation matrix. By utilizing the integration method of reactive distillation (RD) and dividing wall columns (DWC), the complete search space is investigated, and the sequences are optimized using the TLBO algorithm to select the most optimal sequence. To give more emphasis to various process integration methods, the top sequences are further examined and optimized using pinch technology. Finally, the optimal sequence is introduced to reduce energy costs annually. The final sequence has led to approximately a 30% reduction in annual costs compared to the sequence of the industrial unit.
