Cryogenic Distillation

Your product development group has been exploring the possibility of purifying a number
of gas streams containing mixtures of CO2 and methane. Marketing has done some
preliminary research on the potential markets for the purified CO2 and methane products
that might be obtainable from this feed gas. There are several potential markets for
methane, depending on the product purity, with the estimated prices (based on the fuel
value in MMBtu = 106 Btu) shown below:

The market for CO2 is currently more limited but has long-term potential as a carbon
feedstock. High purity CO2 (99%) can be sold for use in the production of dry ice. Medium-
to-high purity CO2 (>50%) can be sold as a C1 gas feedstock for production of fertilizer
(urea, ammonia) or bioconversion to higher value chemical products (e.g. acetone,
isopropanol, 3-hydroxyproprionic acid). CO2 may also be sequestered by pumping it into
deep underground caverns. Government provided subsidies (ie, carbon credits) may be
available to increase the revenue of utilizing CO2.
So in feed, the CO2 is 82% which 18% is methane. The feed pressure is 350 psig. The
flow of gas feed is 45 MMSCFD. The property package selected was Peng Robinson.

The separation pressure will be 500 psig. A compressor is installed to increase the
pressure of feed. With the increase in temperature the gas temperature also increases.
So, it’s required to cool down. For this purpose, a cooler is installed. From T-x-y diagram
at 500 psig, the cooler temperature is selected as -59◦C to cool down gas as it’s saturated
vapor temperature. After that feed enters to distillation column of 10 trays. The trays was
fixed, the reflux ratio was varied to check mole fraction of each component. Furthermore,
the condenser and reboiler duties was also checked at particular values of reflux. As the
number of trays increase, there is no significant effect on mole fraction of component or
separation. Further decrease in trays from 10 show significant effect of separation, as
number of plate decrease, the separation also decreases.

The T-x-y charts were utilized at pressure levels of 300, 500, and 600 psig to identify the
saturated vapor temperature at each pressure. The 500 psig pressure yielded a methane-
rich stream that was more concentrated compared to the other pressure levels.
Conversely, when the corresponding temperature was applied to 600 psig, a decrease in
the mole fraction was observed in comparison to the 500 psig pressure level.

Pressure No of Reflux TOP BOTTOM Distillate Bottom

(Psig) trays Ratio Flow Rate Flow Rate
CO2 Mole CH4 Mole
Fraction fraction
500 11 6 0.1839 0.0495 9964.24 48600.1
500 11 7 0.1839 0.0714 8540.76 50023.6
500 11 5 0.184117 0.983 11956.9 46607.5
500 11 4 0.3144 0.0000564 15375 43190.4
500 11 3 0.5172 0.0000037 21839.1 36725.3
 Pressure No of Reflux Reboiler Bottom Top
(Psig) trays Ratio Duty Temperature Temperature
kW (◦C) (◦C)
500 11 6 62323.2 -13.4 -58.18
500 11 7 53244.9 -20.39 -59
500 11 5 74864.5 -3.70 -58.1238
500 11 4 89008 0.909 -42.99
500 11 3 108608 0.9237 -26.59

The optimized separation of component lies between the reflux ratio of 6 and 3 to 4. But
at these parameters the reboiler duty increases. The pressure and number of trays was
fixed. The feed temperature was fixed which was -50◦C. The best parameters will be
pressure of 500 psig, and the reflux ratio of 6 which is most economical for current
separation in term of purity as well as for cost, but the cooling duty increase and as well
as it’s cost too.

Increasing the reflux ratio will increase the improvement of methane, increasing it leads
to a higher heat duty for the condenser and a larger more expensive column. The reflux
ratio was the last variable to be optimized due to the other variables being maximized
while the reflux ratio is to be minimized.