An Introduction to Dividing Wall Column and Its Effects on decreasing Energy Consumption of Distillation Processes

The distillation process remains as the most common method of separation in chemical process industry so that the energy use of this process accounts for an estimated 3% of world’s energy consumption. Different methods have been considered to reduce the energy consumption in distillation processes. As one of these methods, The Dividing-Wall Column (DWC) has been of great concern for multi-component mixtures distillation. The design of DWC is based on Thermally Coupled Distillation System (TCDS) which eliminates some of the operational equipments. That leads to reduction of 20-30% in capital costs and about 25% in operating costs. Thus Dividing-wall column (DWC) is one of the best examples of process intensification in distillation.This paper presents an introduction to DWC, including column configuration, design, simulation and some current industrial applications.