MDDSS: a New Software for Multicomponent Distillation Design and Simulation

• Main Author: El-Harbawi, Mohanad
• Format: Article
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://eprints.utp.edu.my/5955/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

The framework of developing a Multicomponent Distillation Design and Simulation Software (MDDSS) using Visual Basic programming language is presented in this paper. This software is able to perform product prediction and column design of a multicomponent distillation system when desired fields are entered into the software. The software utilized the method of Fenske-Underwood-Gilliland (FUG) to determine the minimum number of stages, composition of products minimum reflux, number of stages, feedpoint location, height and diameter of the column. The software can be used to optimise and design multicomponent distillation towers by avoiding tedious manual calculations where the probability of making mistakes is high, therefore, one will be able to achieve the maximization of saleable product yields at lower costs. Moreover, the MDDSS application is capable to work as a stand alone application. This implies that even though the software was created in Visual Basic, it will not need Visual Basic to be used on the user’s PC. The software is compatible with all windows operating systems. The cost of developing the software is fairly cheap. The results generated by the software are validated and verified by comparing the results with a commercial simulation software (HYSYS) and published literature and manual calculations.