Computers and Chemical Engineering 23 (1999) 1005 1010

www.elsevier.com/locate/compchemeng

Design of energy-efficient Petlyuk systems

Salvador Hernandez b, Arturo Jimenez a,*
a

Instituto Tecnologico de Celaya, Departamento de Ingeniera Qumica, Celaya, Gto. 38010, Mexico
b
Uni6ersidad de Guanajuato, Facultad de Qumica, Guanajuato, Gto. 36050, Mexico
Received 23 September 1997; accepted 18 March 1999

Abstract
A strategy for the energy-efficient design of the fully thermally coupled distillation column (Petlyuk system) is presented. The
strategy is based on a dynamic model and uses two recycle streams as search variables. The optimization procedure with the
dynamic model provides the conditions under which a given design minimizes the heat duty supplied to the reboiler. Several case
studies are presented, and some trends of the optimal values of the recycle streams are identified. 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All
rights reserved.
Keywords: Distillation column; Energy efficient; Petlyuk systems

1. Introduction
Integrated distillation schemes such as thermally coupled distillation sequences with side columns and the
fully thermally coupled distillation column, or Petlyuk
system (Fig. 1), provide choices of special interest for
the separation of ternary mixtures because of their
potential energy savings. Several studies have been conducted to show the economic potential of those integrated schemes (Tedder & Rudd, 1978; Cerda &
Westerberg, 1981; Fidkowski & Krolikowski, 1986,
1987; Glinos & Malone, 1988; Fidkowski & Krolikowski, 1990; Triantafyllou & Smith, 1992; Wolff &
Skogestad, 1995; Annakou & Mizsey, 1996). In several
of these studies it has been stressed that despite the
economic incentives of integrated distillation systems,
their industrial implementation has been restricted because of the need for reliable design methods and a
proper understanding of their control properties.
We focus in this paper on the use of a rigorous
dynamic model as a convenient tool for the design of
the Petlyuk system. The approach is an extension of a
model previously developed for the design of thermally
coupled distillation sequences with side columns (Hernandez & Jimenez, 1996); the case for the Petlyuk

* Corresponding author.

distillation sequence shows further complications because of the additional degree of freedom provided by
the additional recycle stream between the columns. The
model is used to detect the operating conditions under
which a given design for the Petlyuk system can provide
the minimum energy consumption.

2. Model development
The dynamic model is based on the total mass balance, component mass balances, equilibrium relationship (ideal VLE), summation constraints, energy
balance, and stage hydraulics (Francis Weir formula).
One set of equations must be written for each column
of the Petlyuk system. The equations are coupled because of the two recycle streams between the columns;
therefore, the full set of equations must be solved
simultaneously. An important aspect for the design of
the system is the specification of the two recycle
streams, a liquid stream that leaves column C-2 from
stage NR and enters at the top of column C-1, and a
vapor stream that leaves column C-2 from stage NS2
and constitutes the feed stream at the bottom of
column C-1 (Fig. 2). We define the following dimensionless variables for these streams, which lie between 0
and 1 and are used as search variables in the optimization procedure:

0098-1354/99/$ - see front matter 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 9 8 - 1 3 5 4 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 2 5 7 - 4

S. Hernandez, A. Jimenez / Computers and Chemical Engineering 23 (1999) 10051010

1006

hV =

VB
VNS2

(1)

hL =

LT
LNR

(2)

Equations for PI controllers complement the closedloop dynamic model. The model can be solved using a
numeric technique such as Eulers method.

3. Optimization strategy
The dynamic model requires a basic structure of the
Petlyuk system. Such a preliminary design can be obtained by the shortcut method of Triantafyllou and
Smith (1992), or through the implementation of some
expected distribution of the intermediate component.
The dynamic model serves two purposes. First, it will
detect whether the proposed design can effectively
provide the desired products compositions, and secondly it will identify the operating conditions under
which a minimum energy consumption will be achieved.
The following steps are used for the optimization
procedure.
1. Specify products compositions for the Petlyuk system. These values are taken as set points for the
dynamic model.
2. Establish the control loops between each manipulated variable (R, LS and QR) and its corresponding
output variable (XD, XS and XB).
3. Set a value for hV.
4. Set a value for hL.
5. Initialize time to start the rigorous dynamic
simulation.
6. Integrate the dynamic model (for details see Hernandez & Jimenez, 1996).
7. Compare product compositions with set point values. If they do not agree, increase time by Dt and go
back to step 6. If they agree, a search point is

Fig. 2. Relevant variables for the design of the Petlyuk system.

completed; the operating values for R, LS and QR

are detected.
8. Increase hL and go back to step 5 until the local
minimum of heat duty is detected.
9. Increase hV and go back to step 4 until the overall
minimum of heat duty is found.
It is important to note that an adjustment of the
initial design might be needed if the final steady state
compositions do not agree with the established set
points.

4. Case studies
The method was applied to optimize some given
designs for energy consumption for the nine cases that
arise from the separation of three mixtures with three
different compositions. Different mixtures were analyzed in an attempt to understand the influence of the
relative difficulty of the separation A/B with respect to
B/C on the energy consumption and design of the
system. The ease of separation index (ESI), as defined
by Tedder and Rudd (1978), can be used to characterize
each mixture:
ESI=

Fig. 1. Fully thermally coupled distillation column, or Petlyuk system.

aAB
aBC

(3)

Mixtures with ESI values of 1 (F1), higher than 1

(F2), and lower than 1 (F3) were considered, as shown
in Table 1. Three feed compositions were assumed: an
equimolar mixture (M1), a mixture with a high content
of the intermediate component (M2), and a mixture
with a low content of the intermediate component
(M3); feed compositions are given in Table 2. A feed

S. Hernandez, A. Jimenez / Computers and Chemical Engineering 23 (1999) 10051010

1007

Table 1
Mixtures analyzed
Mixture

Components (A, B, C)

ESI

F1
F2
F3

n-Butane, n-pentane, n-hexane

n-Butane, i-pentane, n-pentane
i-butane, n-butane, n-hexane

1.04
1.86
0.18

flowrate of 45.4 kmol h 1 as saturated liquid was

considered. The set points for the dynamic model,
provided by the design specifications, were XD=0.987
for the distillate product, XS=0.98 for the liquid sidestream product and XB =0.986 for the bottom
product; these compositions reflect 98% recoveries of
key components. For each case study, the parameters
for the PI controllers were obtained with the application of the Cohen Coon technique (Stephanopoulos,
1984).
Fig. 3. Search for the optimal values for the mixture F1 with
composition M1.

4.1. Optimization of mixture F1

The mixture under analysis (n-C5, n-C6, n-C7) has
an ESI of 1.04. The tested design has the following
trays arrangement (see Fig. 2):
NS1= 9
NT1= 16
NR =10
NE= 19
NS2= 28
NT2= 35
The proposed design of the Petlyuk system is then
tested and optimized (for minimum energy consumption) with the rigorous dynamic model. The optimization procedure detects the values of hV and hL that
minimize the amount of heat supplied to the reboiler.
Fig. 3 displays the search for the optimal values. For
the mixture under consideration, a minimum energy
requirement of 488.35 kW is achieved when hV =0.5369
and hL =0.256.
The inefficiency of the conventional direct and indirect sequences with respect to the Petlyuk system has
been explained in terms of the composition profile of
the intermediate component. In the conventional systems, the composition of the middle component reaches
a maximum at some point in the first column and then
declines before reaching the top (indirect sequence) or
the bottom part of the column (direct sequence); this

remixing of component B affects the energy requirements of the separation system. A proper operation of
the Petlyuk system should extract the intermediate component at the tray where its composition profile reaches
a maximum. Fig. 4 shows the composition profile of
component B in the main column for the optimum
conditions provided by the dynamic model. The action
of the controllers provides the desired feature that the
liquid sidestream product is taken from the stage with
the maximum concentration of component B.
For the mixture with a high concentration of the
intermediate component, M2, the optimal values for the

Table 2
Feed composition for each mixture analyzed
Feed

Composition

M1
M2
M3

0.333/0.333/0.333
0.15/0.70/0.15
0.45/0.1/0.45

Fig. 4. Composition profile of component B in column C-2 for the

Petlyuk system. Sidestream taken from stage 19.

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S. Hernandez, A. Jimenez / Computers and Chemical Engineering 23 (1999) 10051010

Fig. 5. Search for the optimal values for the mixture F1 with
composition M2.

Fig. 7. Search for the optimal values for the mixture F2 with
composition M1.

parameters are hV =0.5 and hL =0.175, as shown in

Fig. 5. In the case of the mixture with a low concentration of the intermediate component, M3, the values for
the energy-efficient design are hV =0.7 and hL =0.4, as
shown in Fig. 6.

Petlyuk designs for a mixture (n-C4, i-C5, n-C5) with

an ESI value higher than one were optimized for energy
consumption. Fig. 7 shows the results of the optimiza-

tion search carried out for mixture M1. The optimal

values for the search parameters are hV = 0.7 and hL =
0.575. It can be observed that for this mixture the local
optimum values in the neighborhood of the global
optimum point do not differ significantly; several local
optimum solutions differ from the global optimum by
less than 3%. Another interesting observation is that
once hV is specified, the energy consumption for the
separation of this mixture changes more significantly
with hL than for mixture F1.
For feed composition M2, the optimum values were
hV = 0.7 and hL = 0.62 (see Fig. 8). The same behavior

Fig. 6. Search for the optimal values for mixture F1 with composition
M3.

Fig. 8. Search for the optimal values for the mixture F2 with
composition M2.

4.2. Optimization of mixture F2

S. Hernandez, A. Jimenez / Computers and Chemical Engineering 23 (1999) 10051010

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Fig. 9. Search for the optimal values for mixture F2 with composition
M3.

Fig. 10. Search for the optimal values for the mixture F3 with
composition M1.

is observed as with mixture M1; the optimality region

close to the global optimum energy is fairly flat, such that
several local optimum values are within 3% of the global
optimum, and the energy consumption is again a strong
function of hL once a value for hV has been specified.
Given these results, it can be concluded that for these
types of mixtures a value of 0.7 for hV provides an
excellent choice, and a search over hL should be conducted to determine its optimum value.
When a mixture with a low content of the intermediate
component is considered, M3, the optimization procedure yields the results shown in Fig. 9. The optimal values
for the search parameters are hV =0.4 and hL =0.31.
Given the similar trend of local optimum values and the
dependence between the two search parameters, one
could use for mixtures of this type a fixed value of 0.4
for hV and conduct a search procedure over hL to obtain
an excellent solution.

trends that can be used to minimize the search space for

energy-efficient designs. The following recommendations
are developed as a function of the mixture properties and
its feed composition, and are independent of the use of
a dynamic model or a steady state model for design
purposes.For mixtures with ESI= 1:
If the content of the intermediate component B is
high (\30%), use hV = 0.5 and perform an optimization search over hL.

4.3. Optimization of mixture F3

The optimization for energy consumption of proposed
designs of the Petlyuk system for mixture F3 (i-C4, n-C4,
n-C6) provided results with similar trends as those
observed for mixture F2, as seen in Figs. 10 and 11 which
show the results for two of the three feed compositions
analyzed. A general observation from all of the studies
conducted is that the optimal value of hL is always lower
than that of hV.

4.4. Trends of the 6alues of the recycle streams

The results from the optimization studies showed some

Fig. 11. Search for optimal values for the mixture F3 with composition M2.

S. Hernandez, A. Jimenez / Computers and Chemical Engineering 23 (1999) 10051010

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If the content of the intermediate component B is

low ( B 10%), use hV =0.7 and carry out an optimization search over hL.
For mixtures with ESI" 1:
If the content of the intermediate component is high,
use hV = 0.7 and optimize hL.
If the content of the intermediate component is low,
use hV = 0.4 and carry out an optimization search
over hL.
For all cases, the optimal value of hL is lower than
that of hV. These observed trends can provide the basis
for useful heuristic design rules. It should be emphasized that these trends were obtained for separations of
ideal mixtures.

5. Concluding remarks
The dynamic model provides a robust tool for the
design of energy-efficient Petlyuk systems. No convergence problems were observed for any of the case
studies. Some trends were observed for the optimal
values of the two recycle streams used as search variables. The results show that hV values can be correlated
to an ESI, and that there is no significant deviation in
the optimal solution with small changes in hV. There is,
however, a high dependency on the energy consumption with respect to hL once a value for hV has been
specified. Therefore, the results suggest that a proper
value for hV can be set ahead of design, but a search
over hL is still required to obtain a design with minimum energy consumption. Furthermore, we found that
in all cases the optimum value of hL was lower than
that of hV. These observations reduce significantly the
search space for the design of the Petlyuk system with
minimum energy consumption.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge financial support
from CONACyT, Mexico and from the Program
PROSAA of the Universidad de Guanajuato, for the
development of this project.

Appendix A. Nomenclature
B
D
ESI
L
LS

bottoms
distillate
ease of separation index
liquid flowrate
side product

MB
MD
QR
R
V
XD
XB
XS

moles of liquid retained in the base of the

column
moles of liquid retained in the reflux
accumulator
reboiler heat duty
reflux flowrate
vapor flowrate
mole fraction of A in top product
mole fraction of C in bottoms product
mole fraction of B in sidestream product

Greek symbols
a
relative volatility
h
liquid or vapor fraction
Subscripts
B
vapor stream supplied to the bottom of
column C-1
L
liquid
V
vapor
T
liquid stream supplied to the top of column
C-2

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