Prediction of Multiple Steady States in Distillation through Simple Mass and Heat Balance Analysis

A novel method is proposed to judge the possibility of multiple steady states in distillation. Interestingly, the method is inspired by the analysis of multiple steady states in a nonisothermal continuous stirred tank reactor, in which the balance between heat generation and heat removal plays a critical role. In fact, the overall heat balance is visualized to predict multiple steady states in the developed method; any detailed static or dynamic simulation is not necessary. Several case studies demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method.