Modeling of Mass Transfer in Nonideal Multicomponent Mixture with Maxwell-Stefan Approach

The Intalox metal tower packing was used to simulate an industrial relevant extractive distillation column for purifying azeotropic multicomponent mixture. In order to explain the inconsistencies in the modeling of transfer process in nonideal multicomponent distillation column, a method was developed with equilibrium stage models (EQ) and non-equilibrium model (NEQ) incorporated with Maxwell-Stefan diffusion equations in the framework of AspenONE(r) simulator. Dortmund Modified UNIFAC (UNIFAC-DMD) thermodynamic model was employed to estimate activity coefficients. In addition, to understand the reason for the diffusion against driving force and the different results by EQ and NEQ models, explicit investigations were made on diffusion coefficients, component Murphree efficiency and mass transfer coefficients. The results provide valuable information for basic design and applications associated with extractive distillation.