Advanced fractionation technology for the oleochemical industry

Steadily increasing requirements on fractionation demands in the oleochemical industry require advanced separation technology. Today, often a distillation column has not only to process several different feeds, but also be able to produce two different products simultaneously. Divided wall columns have been proposed and used in the chemical industry, but there are, presently, few applications of divided wall columns in the oleochemical sector. The main reason prohibiting their use might be in the limited familiarity, higher requirements on operation, potential corrosion problems and last but not least, limited flexibility. Fractionation columns with added side stripper are a well-proven way to satisfy increased demand of separation duties. The availability of second-generation structured packing increases the efficiency and reduces pressure drops while making it possible to increase capacity and/or product purities. A lower pressure drop has a positive impact on the separation itself. Combining these effects with an increase in capacity will result in a synergy effect on the separation performance. The newly developed BXPlus structured packing is a powerful tool for advanced Glycerin separation, combining good wettability resulting in high efficiency with low-pressure drop. New columns can be designed much more compactly. Revamps will improve both capacity and/or purity. Copyright © 2007 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.