In order to reduce effectively the refrigeration cost for the process of selective hydrogenation of C3 alkyne into alkene

three novel thermally coupled catalytic distillation flowsheets are proposed. In the proposed flowsheets

the reactor for catalytic hydrogenation of C3 components is settled in the lower part of the deethanizer in the original process and the three columns are thermally coupled in different ways. The proposed flowsheets are rigorously simulated and evaluated. The results show that

compared with original process

the proposed processes raise the convert ratio of hydrogenation

and at the same time

significant energy saving can be achieved by the thermal couplings

leading to a decrease in the total annual cost by 4.107%

6.420% and 10.337% respectively for the three proposed flowsheets.