reducing energy consumption of ternary mixtures using multi-effect columns

There are different arrangements for the separation of ternary mixtures. direct, indirect, and prefractionator arrangements are possible classic arrangements for a ternary mixture separation. in these configurations, two distillation columns are needed and all of the distillation columns used in the mentioned arrangements, like any other distillation column, consume a large amount of energy. therefore, optimization of energy consumption is necessary. in this study, multi effect columns are used to achieve heat integration of a process. each multi effect arrangement is studied in the forward and backward arrangement. according to the results, direct arrangement with forward multi effect columns reduced hot, and cold utility 99.93%, and 99.82% respectively. therefore, this arrangement is the best arrangement for the former process.