Technological Development Of Recovering Acetone From Exhaust Air Using Water Absorption-distillation Method

Acetone recovery process is an important process in many chemical industries which use acetone as solvent. The typical actived carbon adsorption-steam-distillation technology has high energy consumption and lacks of process safety and stability. Because of energy crisis, it is necessary to develop a new energy-saving technology. The water absorption-distillation technology is the best alternative technology currently, because of its lower energy consumption and better process safety and stability.In this paper, under considerable investigation, ASPEN PLUS process simulation software is selected to develop the water absorption-distillation technology. Mathematical models of the process is built, the thermodynamic method and the calculating module for each unit were selected based on the analysis of actual industrial system. The results show that the calculating results are consistent with actual published data.Based on the precise simulation of water absorption-distillation process, sensitivity analysis of the process is conducted. The effect of operating parameters on absorption and distillation units is investigated in detailed. For water absorption unit, the operating parameters include absorbent temperature, VLA gas temperature and concentration, the absorption liquid recycle position, reflux ratio and reflux temperature. For distillation unit, the operating parameters include feed concentration, feed temperature, feed location, operating pressure, etc.Based on the above analysis, feasible operating parameters of the water absorption-distillation process are determined, conceptional design of the process, as well as the technical and economic analysis of the process, is conducted.