Hi,
I have the feed containing about Methanol(96%), Ethanol (3%), Acetone(0.1%), Water (0.9%); all the compositions are in weight %.
The water can be maintained from 0.1% to 5% if it affects the product purity. The product purity required is about (Top): 99.95%, Ethanol: 50 ppm, Acetone :30 ppm, water: 0.1% and (Bottom), maximum possible weight% of ethanol. This is unconventional to those process in which Ethanol is the desired product; For us, MeOH is the desired product.
1st Question: would this be possible in single column with high no. of trays (40-60 trays)?
2nd Question: What would be most economical way to achieve such a product purity.
I am using ChemCAD for this simulation but not getting the purity of this level, The top for me is 99.85% MeOH, 500 ppm EtOH, 300ppm Acetone, Water: 0.1%. I am using UNIFAC/LATE in almost atmospheric condition. Will this be a good choice? I have many other unit operations which UNIFAC is suited to. I have almost the similar result with NRTL as well.
Please suggest me the ways.
Thanks.