Design of separation process of azeotropic mixtures based on the green chemical principles

This paper presents an integrated methodology for synthesis of separation process of azeotropic mixture based on the green chemical principles, which inherently incorporates environmental factors into the separation process synthesis. Characterization of the environmental impact of a chemical process is carried out on the basis of our established environmental impact database (containing nine indices). The superstructure is optimized more effectively and reliably by integrating the mathematical programming approach using multi-objective mixed integer non-linear programming techniques and heuristic approach. The complexity and size of synthesis search space were greatly reduced by applying the thermodynamic insights into the selection of separation techniques. The proposed methodology was highlighted through two industrial examples, one is the separation of azeotropic mixture of dimethyl carbonate and methanol, the other is the separation of azeotropic mixture of isopropanol and water.