Ethanol is an important industrial chemical used as a solvent, fuel additive, and in the production of beverages. One common method of producing ethanol is through fermentation, which yields a mixture of ethanol and water. However, to be commercially viable, the ethanol must be separated from water to reach the desired concentration. Distillation is a widely used method for separating ethanol from water due to their different boiling points. In fuel applications, ethanol purity of $95$ wt$.\%$ or higher is often required to meet regulatory standards for blending with gasoline. However, as ethanol and water will form an azeotrope at high ethanol concentration, a simple distillation process is impossible to achieve the separation. Extractive distillation or a combination with membrane separation is commonly used to achieve the desirable purity of $95$ wt$.\%$ of ethanol. This project focuses on the design of a distillation column for ethanol$/$water separation and

includes a technoeconomic analysis to assess its feasibility and profitability.

Project Objectives:

$$ Design a distillation column for the separation of ethanol and water.

$$ Optimize the column design for cost$-$effectiveness.

$$ Perform a technoeconomic analysis to evaluate the feasibility and profitability of the separation process.

$$ Present findings and recommendations based on the analysis.

More specifically, $10$ wt$.\%$ ethanol will be bought as the raw materials and $80$ wt$.\%$ of ethanol will be sold as product to downstream processing factory. You do not need to work on the membrane part. The distillation column will have $98\%$ ethanol recovered from the top. Assume $100,000$tons$/$year of $80$ wt$.\%$ of ethanol will be produced. The price of the $10$ wt$.\%$ ethanol is purchased at a price of $$25/$ton$,$ and the $80$ wt$.\%$ ethanol is sold at $$350/$ton $($the product price fluctuation on

economic viability should also be considered at the end$).$ Maximum of $3$ students per project and the contribution of each student has to clearly stated or points will be deducted for all students. You need to finish following tasks for the project.

$1.$ Use CMO assumption, manually find the number of stages and optimum feed location:

$$ Find the minimum reflux ratio and use that to choose your reflux ratio.

$$ Find the number of stages and optimum feed location with the McCabe$-$Thiele method.

$$ Determine the column efficiency and find real column stage number and feed location.

$2.$ Process Simulation:

$$ Use process simulation software $($e$.$g$.,$ Aspen Plus, CHEMCAD$)$ to model the distillation process for ethanol$/$water separation.

$$ Input relevant parameters such as feed composition, temperature, pressure, and desired product specifications.

$$ Find the column design parameters with $5$ different reflux ratios $($reasonably scattered$).$

$$ Validate the simulation results through comparisons with the manually calculated results or literature values.

$3.$ Distillation Column Design:

Based on the simulation results, design the distillation column including $($provide detailed calculation steps in the report, only use one reflux ratio as example to explain the calculation, but need to provide Excel file of calculation for all reflux ratios$)$:

$$ Determining column height and diameter.

$$ Selecting appropriate trays or packing materials.

$$ Sizing condensers and reboilers.

$4.$ Technoeconomic Analysis:

$$ Gather data on capital costs $($equipment$,$ installation$),$ operating costs $($utilities$,$ labor$),$ and revenue $($ethanol sales$).$

$$ Perform sensitivity analysis to assess the impact of key parameters $($e$.$g$.,$ reflux ratios and price of product fluctuation$)$ on economic viability.

$5.$ Report and Presentation:

$$ Compile all findings, calculations, and analyses into a comprehensive$$report$.$