Economic and Risk Analyses of an Industrial N,N‐Dimethylformamide Recovery Process

Abstract

The industrial N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) recovery plant is usually based on a two-column sequence (TCS) and the capacity of the wastewater treatment process is larger than 2000 kg h -1 . Here, a dividing-wall column (DWC)-based DMF recovery plant is proposed. The DWC avoids the remixing effect and reduces the utility duties by about 18.1 % and the CO 2 emissions by 15.2 %, compared to the TCS. The DWC effectively decreases the total annual cost by 3.4 % compared to that of the TCS and achieves a profitability index of 2.19 and an internal rate of return of 40.45 %. By Monte Carlo risk analysis, the DWC can increase the chance of earning the profit by up to 16 % compared to the TCS.