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Distillation is often described as a mature technology that is well understood and established, no longer requiring funding or attention from research and development. This thinking is flawed, as distillation has come a long way in the past three decades and has even more room to grow.
Distillation is considered by many to be a mature technology. As a result, large research institutes overlook its funding, and little research is done to advance the field. But, what does it mean for a technology to be mature?
Distillation is a mass-transfer process, regulated by thermodynamics, and subject to the laws of physics. While we understand the fundamentals of the operation, even after several decades of research, descriptive models of distillation that are exclusively based on first principles (without empirical fits) are not available. We still largely rely on testing and empirical observations to develop and describe distillation. And, we do not know what development may be around the next comer. Even small developments can result in large economic and sustainability improvements, as distillation is prevalent in the chemical process industries (CPI) globally.
Defining a technology as mature should not be based on an understanding of the principles that govern its operation. A technology's maturity should be based on how much further progress can be made and what remains to be learned. Distillation, by this definition, is not mature and still has plenty of room to advance.
In the past three decades, distillation has advanced in:
* thermodynamics and thermodynamic efficiency
* process configurations
* process simulations
* process control
* column internal design
* column peripherals (e.g., heat transfer)
* reliability and availability
* operation in harsh environments
* diagnostics.
Table 1 provides some specific examples of advancements in the past decade or so that have had a significant economic impact. Most of these have been enabled by research and development (R&D) supported by industry, either internally or through research consortia.
Innovations in related fields such as fluid flow have also played a role in advancing distillation. For example, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is now used extensively to design and troubleshoot distillation columns.
The need for continued innovation in the field is palpable. Even small improvements in distillation capacity, efficiency, availability, and cost will have...