Research on the Integration Process of Energy Saving Distillation-Membrane Separation Based on Genetic Programming to Achieve Clean Production

The separation of industrial azeotropes by a new integrated process of distillation-membrane separation has the prominent advantages for energy saving and environmental protection. In view of the variety of industrial azeotrope types, this paper proposes a comprehensive solution strategy based on intelligent genetic programming (GP) for the distillation-membrane separation integration process. Based on Visual Studio platform, GP is written by C++ language. This algorithm can quickly calculate the economic optimal distillation-membrane separation process for any azeotrope separation. In this paper, the tert-Butanol-water azeotrope, the 2-Propanol-water azeotrope and the Pervap (R) 2510 membrane are taken as calculation examples to verify the feasibility and extensibility of the algorithm. The cost of carbon dioxide emission is taken into account.The results show that the algorithm can quickly and accurately search the optimal integrative process of various feed conditions and carbon dioxide emission conditions. The analysis of multiple optimal data shows that the membrane area has great influenced by the change of feed composition, which further influences the membrane separation cost. The cost models of various kinds of membranes can be modified at any time, thus it can be helpful for the future industrial application and further modification of membrane which is still in the experimental stage.