Synthesis of heat-integrated distillation systems

A two-level method is developed for the synthesis of separation systems with coupled heat fluxes for multicomponent mixtures. At the first level, the optimum organization of the separation subsystem is sought for, and the total cost of the heat-exchange subsystem is estimated from the lower bound calculated by analyzing the composition curves of the enthalpy-temperature diagram. At the second step, for the found scheme of the separation subsystem, the problem of synthesis of the optimum heat-exchange subsystem is solved. Analysis is performed of the possibility of the synthesis of the heat-exchange system with a varying minimum allowable difference between the inlet and outlet temperatures of the heat-exchanger.