Practical residue curve map analysis applied to solvent recovery in non-ideal binary mixtures by batch distillation processes

Batch distillation inherent advantages have initiated recent search for process feasibility rules enabling the separation of azeotropic or difficult zeotropic binary mixtures thanks to the addition of an entrainer. A systematic procedure enabling to find suitable process and eventually suitable entrainer for the separation of zeotropic or azeotropic binary mixture is described. It brings together into practical use batch distillation process feasibility rules, chemical affinity insight and thermodynamic data analysis available in the literature. The procedure has been implemented in a wizard computer tool and is illustrated on the separation of the water–acetonitrile binary homoazeotrope. Through this tool, all possible 224 feasibility rules and 326 batch distillation sequence processes are checked systematically for each entrainer.