Entropic Balance Conditions and Optimization of Distillation Column System

The paper considers the limitation problem of the distillation column systems separating multicomponent mixtures with serial and parallel structures. The solution takes into account the irreversibility of processes. Using entropic balance conditions, the dependence of load on heat consumption is obtained for a binary distillation column. This dependence is parameterized through two characteristic coefficients–reversible efficiency and irreversibility factor. This dependence was used to solve problems of distribution of heat and raw material fluxes in parallel column structure and selection of optimal separation order in serial structure. The obtained results make it possible to estimate the minimum heat consumption for the separation of a given flow of raw materials, the maximum productivity, and efficiency of the system.

Development of Bio-Composites with Enhanced Antioxidant Activity Based on Poly(lactic acid) with Thymol, Carvacrol, Limonene, or Cinnamaldehyde for Active Food Packaging

The new trend in food packaging films is to use biodegradable or bio-based polymers, such as poly(lactic acid), PLA with additives such as thymol, carvacrol, limonene or cinnamaldehyde coming from natural resources (i.e., thyme, oregano, citrus fruits and cinnamon) in order to extent foodstuff shelf-life and improve consumers’ safety. Single, triple and quadruple blends of these active compounds in PLA were prepared and studied using the solvent-casting technique. The successful incorporation of the active ingredients into the polymer matrix was verified by FTIR spectroscopy. XRD and DSC data revealed that the crystallinity of PLA was not significantly affected. However, the Tg of the polymer decreased, verifying the plasticization effect of all additives. Multicomponent mixtures resulted in more intense plasticization. Cinnamaldehyde was found to play a catalytic role in the thermal degradation of PLA shifting curves to slightly lower temperatures. Release of thymol or carvacrol from the composites takes place at low rates at temperatures below 100 °C. A combined diffusion-model was found to simulate the experimental release profiles very well. Higher antioxidant activity was noticed when carvacrol was added, followed by thymol and then cinnamaldehyde and limonene. From the triple-component composites, higher antioxidant activity measured in the materials with thymol, carvacrol and cinnamaldehyde.

Comparison of shortcut methods for designing of divided wall columns for separating tertiary zeotropic mixtures

Recently, divided wall column has been considered as one of the types of thermally coupled towers for separating multicomponent mixtures. In the structure of this tower, there is a wall that divides the tower into two parts, the Prefractionator and the Main Column. The divided wall column is thermodynamically equivalent of the Petlyuk tower. Therefore, in order to obtain the design and simulation parameters of the Petlyuk tower utilizing the available software, this tower must be divided into simpler towers. The shortcut method is employed to acquire the initial parameters. In the present research, initially, the design of divided wall column has been conducted using shortcut methods to separate three-component zeotropic mixtures. Next, the design and simulation of the divided wall column is performed employing ASPEN PLUS software and the results of the two methods are compared from various angles.

Soret vector for description of multicomponent mixtures

The Soret effect describes the transport of constituent species in multicomponent mixtures that occurs due to a temperature gradient. This cross-coupling effect of heat and mass transfer has been successfully examined in binary liquid mixtures, while experiments with ternary mixtures are rare as they impose significant difficulties. We introduce a new and innovative concept, the Soret vector, for the characterization of Soret driven separation in ternary mixtures. The presentation of the component separation in the vector form offers several advantages: (i) to predict the Soret sign of a ternary mixture from knowledge of the Soret coefficients in binary subsystems; (ii) to control consistency of measured coefficients, this is especially important when results are obtained using different instruments and methods; (iii) to determine in which regions and which components cause the greatest separation; (iv) to identify the regions where the Soret separation is inaccessible for optical techniques or gravitationally unstable. We demonstrate these features by exploring ternary mixtures of different origins: (a) nearly ideal mixture composed by THN–IBB–nC12 when Soret coefficients in binary subsystems ($$S_{T}^{bin}$$ S T bin ) are positive, (b) non-ideal mixture containing water and ethanol TEG–Wat–EtOH when $$S_{T}^{bin}$$ S T bin are positive and negative and (c) Tol–MeOH–Ch mixture containing demixing zone with positive and negative $$S_{T}^{bin}$$ S T bin . Our approach provides a promising systematic framework for the future research of an important and challenging problem of thermodiffusion in multicomponent liquids.

Thermodynamic Property Calculation in Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium for Multicomponent Mixtures using Highly Accurate Helmholtz Free Energy Equation of State

Thermodynamic properties of multicomponent mixtures in phase equilibrium were studied. The tangent plane criterion was used for stability analysis, and the Gibbs energy minimization was employed for phase equilibrium calculation when the successive substitution didn't converge. Thermodynamic properties of a 12-component natural gas mixture in vapor-liquid equilibrium were calculated with highly accurate Helmholtz free energy equation of state GERG--2008, simplified GERG--2008 and common cubic Peng --- Robinson (PR) equation of state. Results show that in vapor-liquid equilibrium, GERG--2008 has high accuracy and works better than simplified GERG--2008 and PR-equation of state. Simplified GERG--2008 and PR-equation of state both work unsatisfactorily in vapor-liquid equilibrium calculation, especially near the saturation zone. The deviation function in GERG--2008 can significantly affect the accuracy of GERG--2008 when calculating thermodynamic properties of mixtures in vapor-liquid equilibrium