Vapor Recompression

Vapor recompression is the term commonly applied to an energy conservation scheme that uses a compressor to compress a vapor to a pressure at which it will condense to supply a heat load. This study examines one potential application in connection with splitting butanes (the separation of isobutane from n-butane): the recompression of overhead vapor to supply heat to the reboiler. Butane splitting has a feature favorable to the practicality of vapor recompression: the temperature difference between the reboiler and the condenser is relatively small. Comparative designs and evaluations were made for the deisobutanizer used in the design case for butane isomerization in the PEP project on isomerization of paraffins in Report No. 91.