Conventional mechanical steam compression(MVR) heat pump distillation for separating mixed xylene exists shortcomings of high compressor power consumption and overhead sensible heat unused. Organic Rankine cycle(ORC) power generation technology can transform the low-temperature waste heat into electricity for compressor

in view of the above

the MVR heat pump distillation processes coupled by the ORC power generation technology and combined with exhaust steam regenerative cycle(EGC) were applied to separate the system. Taking total annual cost(TAC) and energy consumption as the evaluation indexes of separation process

net output power and cycle thermal efficiency are used as evaluation indexes of ORC system. Simulations for the above two kinds of distillation process were performed and the results were compared with the conventional MVR heat pump distillation process. The results show that compared with the conventional MVR heat pump distillation process

the MVR heat pump distillation processes coupled by ORC power generation technology and combined with EGC power generation technology both have certain energy saving and economic advantages

can reduce energy consumption by 9.64% and 9.89%

and save TAC by 3.19% and 3.50% respectively.