Dividing-Wall Column Screening Guidelines and Applications

A dividing-wall column (DWC) is a distillation column with a vertical partition that can be implemented as a potentially attractive alternative to conventional multi-column or sidecut column arrangements; use of a DWC may enable capital cost and energy savings of around 30% or even higher to be achieved. Rules-of-thumb involving process conditions like feed composition and relative volatility are often cited for consideration when trying to determine if a DWC might make sense (or not) in a given flowscheme. The intent of this work is to present and review these guidelines in the context of refining and petrochemical processes and obtain an updated perspective that will allow for more detailed guidance to be provided for future screening evaluations.