(197f) Reboiled Refinery Sidestrippers Considered As a Special Case of Thermally Coupled Columns

In the last five years both academic and industrial engineers have made leaps in understanding and implementing thermally coupled columns. This has the potential to transform distillation in many industries. However, one area where thermally coupled columns has been long established is in the use of reboiled sidestrippers on crude distillation columns.

Often reboiled sidestrippers are not thought of this way, but they are one of the oldest and most established practical applications of thermally coupled columns. One factor limiting their understanding is that refinery services have product specifications set on performance properties of broad boiling-range product streams rather than by purity targets based on a few components.

This analysis examines the following elements of reboiled sidestrippers;

• survey of industry practice on use.
• capacity and yield benefits or costs.
• heat source analysis and practical limits.
• stastical analysis of economic factors favoring them.
• secondary factors in selection and application.