A novel multi-effect methanol distillation process

Crude methanol distillation is an energy-intensive separation process and contributes significantly to the cost of methanol production. Although a number of energy-efficient distillation systems have been proposed, there is potential for energy savings in methanol distillation. To further reduce the energy consumption of methanol distillation, a novel five-column multi-effect distillation process is proposed in this work, which is essentially an improved version of an existing four-column scheme. The four-column scheme is made up of a pre-run column, a higher-pressure column, an atmospheric column and a recovery column. The new five-column scheme adds a medium-pressure column after the original higher-pressure column. In this way, the load of the original higher-pressure and atmospheric columns can be decreased by about 30%. The five-column arrangement creates a multi-effect distillation configuration involving efficient heat integration between higher-pressure and medium-pressure columns, atmospheric and recovery columns, and recovery and pre-run columns. Steady-state process simulation results indicate that temperature differences at two sides of each heat exchanger are appropriate, allowing effective heat transfer. Economic analysis shows that the energy consumption of the five-column scheme can be reduced by 33.6% compared to the four-column scheme. Significant savings in operating costs can therefore be achieved, resulting in an economically viable process for methanol distillation.