Energy analysis study of coal tar distillation process by feed splitting method

Abstract

Coal tar is a high viscosity liquid and has a black color which formed as a by-product of the production process of coke and gas from coal. Coal tar compounds have high economic value because they can be resold and valuable. One valuable compound is naphthalene. The coal tar evaluation process of its constituent components is carried out by distillation, with a high level of naphthalene purity achieved up to 96%. The coal tar distillation process normally requires high energy, which leads to expensive operational costs. In order to achieve low energy consumption during the distillation process, a study of energy analysis in the coal tar distillation process needs to be done. This study aims to analyze the energy consumption of the distillation process by using simulator software. Process simulations will be performed using the Aspen HYSYS simulator, where the variable in the form of the ratio of the feed flow rate into the distillation tower is divided into two streams, namely cold stream and hot stream. The location of the changed input feed is also a changing variable in this study. The fixed variables in this study were the operating conditions of the distillation process and the incoming feed flow rate, which was 2 m3/hour. The simulations suggest that the amount of energy saved in the condenser unit is 4.40 percent and 5.28 percent in the reboiler unit.