Designing packed multi-partition wall dividing wall columns I. Dejanović 1 , Lj. Matijašević 1 , I. Halvorsen 2 , S. Skogestad 3 , B. Kaibel 4 , H. Jansen 4 , Ž. Olujić 5 1 University of Zagreb, Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Zagreb, Croatia 2 SINTEF, Electronics and Cybernetics, Trondheim, Norway 3 Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Trondheim, Norway 4 Julius Montz GmbH, Hilden, Germany 5 Delft University of Technology, Process & Energy Laboratory, Delft, The Netherlands Keywords: distillation, energy saving, heat coupling, dividing wall column, multiple partition walls Prepared for presentation at the James R. Fair Heritage Distillation Conference, AIChE Spring National Meeting, March 13-17, 2011, Chicago, Illinois, USA Copyright: 2011: Authors Unpublished AIChE shall not be responsible for statements or opinions contained in papers or printed in publications. ABSTRACT Separation of three-component mixtures into three pure products using a dividing wall column (DWC) is an established energy, capital and space saving distillation technology with ever growing number and field of applications. This paper addresses potential and possibilities for four or more products separations that could increase potential gains, and, most importantly, could be arranged in an industrially viable way using packed, multi partition DWCs. This paper addresses possibilities and peculiarities associated with establishing the most beneficial internal configuration of a complex DWC for separation of a multicomponent aromatics mixture into four or five product streams, by using V-min diagram method to identify most promising configurations and to provide initial values for detailed simulation based determination of adequate energy and stage requirement. Introduction As proven in industrial practice, application of dividing wall columns (DWC), where appropriate, leads to approximately 30 per cent saving in both energy and capital, compared to equivalent conventional distillation sequences for obtaining three high purity products (Olujić et al., 2009, Asprion and Kaibel, 2010)). Simulation studies performed with well defined, mainly hypothetical pure component systems, have indicated that designing four and more products DWCs could enhance potential energy and capital savings significantly (Dejanović et al., 2010). This implies that there is a strong incentive to consider implementing more complex designs of a DWC. These z.olujic@tudelft.nl 1