Tower-free distillation and purification equipment has been successfully introduced

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Tower-free distillation and purification equipment has been successfully developed. After 7 years of research, the Contemporary Chemical Engineering Research Institute in Anyang High-Tech Zone, Henan Province, has successfully created a series of tower-free distillation and purification devices, opening up a new approach for distillation production. On April 11, a CCIN reporter learned from the institute that a chemical plant in Puyang City, Henan Province, and Zhanhong Chemical Research Institute in Handan City, Hebei Province, are currently in intensive discussions with the institute regarding the use of such equipment. More than 60 domestic users, as well as some foreign users, are also closely monitoring the progress of this project. 　 According to Li Baoguo, director of the Contemporary Chemical Engineering Research Institute, this series of equipment was finalized at the end of last year. It includes three types: towerless distillers, towerless rectifiers, and towerless purifiers for methanol and ethanol. These devices can be used individually or in combination, and no reports on such technology have appeared domestically or internationally before. Towerless distillers can produce alcohols with a purity of 90% to 95%, while towerless rectifiers can yield alcohols with a purity of 96% to 99.5%. Methanol and ethanol refining units can achieve a purity of 99.9% to 99.95% for anhydrous alcohols, as well as chromatographically pure grades. When the series of products is used together, the low-alcohol content can be increased from 15% to 30% to 99.9% to 99.95%. Currently, applications for invention and utility model patents have been filed for towerless distillation purification equipment, and prototype units of the new series of purification equipment have been on public display since last week. 　　Li Baoguo said that the realization of towerless distillation (rectification) was thanks to a new purification principle they discovered. Numerous experiments have shown that compact towerless separators achieve the same purification efficiency as tall towers standing 7 to 25 meters high in distillation vessels. The new equipment is significantly smaller in size, requires less investment, has a shorter construction period, is easy to operate, can be manufactured in ordinary factories, and its energy consumption is the same as or slightly lower than that of traditional distillation towers. 　　According to statistics, 40% to 70% of the energy consumption in chemical production is used for separation processes, with distillation accounting for around 95% of this energy use. Distillation towers represent about 25% of the total investment in equipment; therefore, low-height towers and tower-free distillation methods will be the future direction of development. In this field, China is already among the leaders in the world. Previously, the Separation Research Institute of Zhejiang University of Technology developed the world’s first baffled supergravity rotating bed, which significantly reduced the height of distillation towers. Academician Fei Weiyang of Tsinghua University described it as a \"crystal amplifier for chemical production across the century.\" The towerless distillation and purification equipment invented by Anyang Contemporary Chemical Research Institute has ushered in a new era of towerless purification. 　　It is reported that the towerless distillation and purification series of equipment will not only be utilized in the recycling sector, but also introduced into the large-scale production of anhydrous methanol/ethanol, with the aim of completely replacing 25–50 meter tall distillation towers and ensuring that the resulting alcohol products meet **standard requirements.