Project Synopsis
Develop a design for a skid mounted distillation column for the separation of glycol/water mixtures resulting from commercial airline deicing operations.
Project Summary
GLYCOL DISTILLATION SYSTEM PRELIMINARY SIZING AND PROCESS DESIGN
Process Engineering Associates, LLC (PROCESS) was contracted by the client, a manufacturer of automated skid systems for chemical processing, to determine preliminary size requirements for a packed column and associated heat exchangers to be constructed as a skid system designed to recover either propylene glycol or ethylene glycol from mixtures containing mostly water used as deicing agents on commercial airlines. As a part of this project, the following tasks were accomplished:
- Recommended operating conditions (column pressure and feed temperature) based on utilities available and problems caused by excessive temperatures
- Determined packing height, column diameter, and condenser and reboiler heat loads for a system that would process the feed rates required and produce the desired purities of water and glycol.
PROCESS utilized its licensed commercial simulation software and its chemical/physical component database to develop a distillation simulation for the glycol/water distillation system.
PROCESS supplied the client with an email report of findings from the simulation along with a PFD sketch showing major pieces of equipment, rough estimates of the equipment dimensions, and estimates of heat loads and major stream flow rates. The client then used the information to develop a proposal for building the system for a potential client.
Industry Type
- Skid Process Manufacturing
Utilized Skills
- Distillation design