Eco-efficiency evaluation of acetone-methanol separation processes using computational simulation

The evaluation of environmental parameters of industrial processes plays a fundamental role in reducing not only their ecological impacts but also the costs associated with plant operations. In this regard, this work aims to evaluate, through eco-indicators and with the aid of computational simulation, the energy consumption, the CO2 emissions and the water consumption of three different acetone-methanol separation plants, namely, Pressure Swing Distillation, Conventional Extractive Distillation and Energetically Integrated Extractive Distillation. Said processes were compared to one another in terms of their environmental efficiencies by means of the Eco-efficiency Comparison Index (ECI) method, which demonstrated that the integrated process is the most ecologically friendly.