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US 12,005,381 B2Granted
Heat integrated process and system for ethanol production using vapor recompression
AssigneeWhitefox Technologies Limited
InventorsJin Ming Zhou, Thiago Righi, Chenxu Shi, Stephan Blum, Virginia Andrade
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Abstract
A distillation and dehydration system is provided that produces an anhydrous organic solvent. The provided system includes vapor recompression (e.g., a mechanical or thermal vapor recompression unit) to recover heat from a rectification-distillation section (e.g., a rectifier/stripper column). The addition of vapor recompression enables further heat recovery within a stream by increasing the condensation temperature and pressure of that stream and later using its latent heat by condensing it.
Claims14
A heat recovery system, comprising:
- a vapor recompression unit connected on a first low pressure side to an overhead vapor output of a distillation unit and connected on a first high pressure side to a first heat exchanger for a condensate vessel;
- a first compressor connected on a second low pressure side to an outlet of the condensate vessel and connected on a second high pressure side to a second heat exchanger for a medium pressure receiving system, wherein the first heat exchanger transfers heat from a first vapor of an organic fluid received from the distillation unit via the vapor recompression unit to a working fluid of a nonorganic fluid in the condensate vessel to generate a second vapor of the working fluid that is output via the outlet to the first compressor;
- and
- a second compressor connected on a third low pressure side to the second high pressure side of the first compressor and connected on a third high pressure side to a third heat exchanger included in a high pressure receiving system.
1 more element
A heat recovery system, comprising:
- a condensate flash vessel including a first heat exchanger configured to receive a vaporous overhead stream of an organic fluid as a hot source from a distillation unit, the condensate flash vessel configured to store a condensate of a non-organic fluid, wherein the first heat exchanger is configured to exchange heat from the hot source to the condensate to generate a low pressure vapor at a first pressure;
- a first receiving system including a second heat exchanger configured to receive a medium pressure vapor and to exchange heat from the medium pressure vapor to a first fluid held in the first receiving system;
- a second receiving system including a third heat exchanger configured to receive a high pressure vapor and to exchange heat from the high pressure vapor to a second fluid held in the second receiving system;
- a first compressor configured to produce the medium pressure vapor from the low pressure vapor, which is received by the first compressor from the condensate flash vessel, and direct the medium pressure vapor to the second heat exchanger;
- and
- a second compressor configured to produce the high pressure vapor from the medium pressure vapor, which is received by the second compressor from the first compressor, and direct the high pressure vapor to the third heat exchanger.
3 more elements
A heat recovery system, comprising:
- a condensate flash vessel including a first heat exchanger and configured to store a condensate of a non-organic fluid, wherein the first heat exchanger is configured to exchange heat from a hot source to the condensate to generate a low pressure vapor at a first pressure;
- a first receiving system including a second heat exchanger configured to receive a medium pressure vapor and to exchange heat from the medium pressure vapor to a first fluid held in the first receiving system;
- a second receiving system including a third heat exchanger configured to receive a high pressure vapor and to exchange heat from the high pressure vapor to a second fluid held in the second receiving system;
- a vapor recompression unit connected to the first heat exchanger and configured to compress a vaporous overhead stream of an organic fluid received from a distillation unit into a compressed overhead vapor that is provided as the hot source to the first heat exchanger;
- a first compressor configured produce the medium pressure vapor from the low pressure vapor, which is received by the first compressor from the condensate flash vessel, and direct the medium pressure vapor to the second heat exchanger;
- and
- a second compressor configured to produce the high pressure vapor from the medium pressure vapor, which is received by the second compressor from the first compressor, and direct the high pressure vapor to the third heat exchanger.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.