DISTILLATION COLUMN (SPLITTER) (MULTI- COMPONENT DISTILLATION COLUMN) 4.

1 INTRODUCTION In this project, the splitter equipment acts as the substitute equipment for distillation column. Under certain circumstances, distillation column that needs to be installed could not achieve the desired condition of the system. Therefore the splitter equipment is used to replace the distillation column. In real life, distillation column is vital equipment for the production of terephthalic acid to ensure the purity of the product from intermediates products. In this case, the splitter is used to separate the unreacted reactant and intermediate products that consist of p-xylene, p-toluic acid, ptolualdehyde, 4-CBA, water as well as the nitrogen and oxygen that obtained from the air for the oxidation reaction requirement. The purpose of the separation is to remove the impurities which are water and intermediates products and the unreacted reactants that can be used back in the system such as p-xylene. Based on that opinion, the design of distillation column need to be included in this project. Table : Summary of the inlet and outlet composition of distillation column Compone nt Feed (stream 10) Molar Flow Rate (kmol/ hr) p-xylene oxygen p-toluic acid ptolualdeh yde 4-CBA Water Acetic Acid Nitrogen 0.2397 0.9391 0 0 0.0012 0.4745 0.2703 0.0047 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0.0016 0.0063 0 0 0.0004 0.0028 0.0096 Mole Composit ion Overhead Vapour Stream 11 Molar Flow Rate (kmol/ hr) 0.0014 0.0110 0.0375 Mole Composit ion Stream 12 Molar Flow Rate (kmol/ hr) 0 0 0 Mole Composit ion Bottom (stream 13) Molar Flow Rate (kmol/ hr) 0 0 0 Mole Composit ion