I would like to ask how, in industry, heat is supplied from the overhead condenser of a distillation tower to the reboiler?
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I have a question: if the top condenser of one distillation column is used to supply heat to the reboiler of another column, are there any requirements regarding the type of reboiler? Neither tower is very low; so where is this shared heat exchanger located?
The top condenser of the distillation column is the reboiler of another column.
It can be used as a preheater for the feed of another tower; if the boiling points of the feeds to the two towers differ little, it is not practical to use it as a reboiler.
The coupled tower is worth taking a look at. Do you mean just one heat exchanger?
Mm-hmm, yes. Is that the case? I’m not sure where to place a heat exchanger
Does it mean that a single-tower condenser is equivalent to a two-tower reboiler?
Comparing it with the hot bypass scheme at the top of the tower, placing the condenser on the ground would essentially function as a reboiler for two towers, wouldn’t it? As long as the supercooling is sufficient, it can return to the reflux tank of Tower 1.
The product from the top of Tower 1 goes to the reboiler at the bottom of Tower 2; the height of the reboiler in Tower 2 must be higher than that of the reflux drum. That’s how four-column distillation works.