Development of a simulator for distillation columns

Abstract

In this work, the simulator for distillation calculation was developed by using C++ language. It could be used to solve distillation problems with maximum 10 components and 100 equilibrium stages. Each equilibrium stage was composed of a feed stream, liquid and vapor sidestreams and a side exchanger for cooling or heating. The model described both ideal gas behaviour and real gas behaviour corresponding to Peng-Robinson or Soave Redlich Kwong models. The bubble-point method was used to solve the problem. The system of equations were solved by Thomas method. This simulator had to be run on Microsoft Windows version 3.1 or later in order to provide a lot of convenient Graphic User Interfaces. Users had to input data into dialogs or windows of this simulator. The results of calculation were displayed both in tabular form and in graphic form. The results of calculation were investigated by checking the material balance of the column and were compared to reference data and results obtained from a commercial simulator named HYSIM. It was found that the difference was ±3.39% for the material balance, ±0.46% for temperature compared to reference data and ±1.19% for the results of equilibrium stage compared to HHSIM.