Study of Energy-Saving Characteristics of Propylene-Propane Mixtures in the Heat Pump Distillation Column

The largest proportion of energy consuming is the operations of separation in chemical industry, and the energy consumption of the distillation is the highest in separation. Therefore, it is very important to research energy-saving issues of the process of distillation in today's circumstances of the energy shortage. This article describes the model of the heat pump distillation column,and its characteristics, uses static simulation programs to simulate operating conditions in the same pressure for the propylene-propane material system, and studys effects of the different feed states on the energy-saving of heat pump distillation column. The results will be compared with the conventional distillation column, and it was showed that for propylene-propane system, the heat pump distillation column is more remarkable than the conventional distillation column in energy savings, and its energy saving rate can reach 56%.