A dividing-wall prefractionator configuration was investigated for a safe and economic retrofit of the conventional sequence using simple distillation columns. In the proposed retrofit configuration, the first column was modified to a dividing wall column as a prefractionator to supply prefractionated multi-feeds to the subsequent column. To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed configuration, nine near-ideal feed mixtures were considered for analysis. The proposed configuration was then compared with several other alternative configurations. The proposed dividing-wall prefractionator efficiently generates prefractionated multi-feed streams avoiding feed mismatch and remixing effect with low modification cost. Moreover, because the proposed retrofit configuration allows for flexible switching between the dividing-wall prefractionator and the conventional operating mode, a safe retrofit is also ensured by reducing the operational risks. Several industrial retrofit cases were studied to validate the proposed dividing-wall prefractionator configuration.

为了使用传统的蒸馏塔进行安全，经济的改型，对隔壁预分馏塔的配置进行了研究。在所提出的改造配置中，第一塔被修改为分隔壁塔，作为预分馏器，以将预分馏的多进料供应至后续塔。为了研究所提出的配置的有效性，考虑了九种近乎理想的进料混合物进行分析。然后将建议的配置与其他几种替代配置进行了比较。所提出的分隔壁预分馏器有效地产生了预分馏的多进料流，从而避免了进料不匹配和再混合效果，同时降低了改造成本。而且，因为提出的改型配置允许在分隔壁预分馏塔和常规操作模式之间灵活切换，所以还可以通过降低操作风险来确保安全的改型。研究了几种工业改造案例，以验证所提出的分隔壁预分馏塔配置。