In this work, we describe strategies that help process designers in the identification and design of efficient distillation schemes for separating binary mixtures. Over the decades, numerous distillation schemes have been proposed in the literature as more efficient alternatives for the conventional heat-supplied distillation. However, a comprehensive analysis that helps to navigate through this large landscape of distillation schemes remains unavailable at one source. Here, we present numerous insights in the form of observations and remarks that explain why and when the alternatives are more efficient than the conventional heat-supplied distillation. The need for this article becomes apparent given that an understanding has begun to emerge that distillation is inherently inefficient and it needs to be replaced with alternative technologies to make industrial separations more sustainable. The main reason behind such general statements is either the use of an incorrect definition of efficiency or the consideration of an inefficient mode of operation. Here, we elucidate the correct approach to understand the efficiency of distillation, and demonstrate that it can be very efficient when the right operating mode is chosen.

在这项工作中，我们描述了有助于工艺设计人员识别和设计用于分离二元混合物的有效蒸馏方案的策略。几十年来，文献中提出了许多蒸馏方案作为传统供热蒸馏的更有效替代方案。然而，在一个来源中仍然无法进行全面的分析，以帮助浏览这一大范围的蒸馏方案。在这里，我们以观察和评论的形式提出了许多见解，解释了为什么以及何时替代方案比传统的供热蒸馏更有效。鉴于人们已经开始认识到蒸馏本质上是低效的，需要用替代技术取而代之，以使工业分离更具可持续性，因此本文的必要性变得显而易见。这种一般性陈述背后的主要原因要么是使用了不正确的效率定义，要么是考虑到了低效的操作模式。在这里，我们阐明了了解蒸馏效率的正确方法，并证明在选择右操作模式时可以非常有效。