Abstract Separation of azeotropic mixtures is one of the most energy intensive systems in petrochemical industries. In the present study effect of feed-splitting on energy demand of the extractive distillation of CO2–ethane azeotropic process is studied by means of Hysys process simulation software and relevant optimization analysis. Two alternatives are proposed for using feed-splitting technique in the process. The proposal presented in this work is splitting the feed before entering it to the heat exchanger in such a way of keeping a proper fraction of the feed at its original temperature and the rest being heated up with the warmer bottom product. A comparison between the results of the feed-splitting configurations and the conventional process in terms of total energy demand and environmental problems are carried out to determine the best scheme. It is observed that the best scheme of feed splitting technique in its optimized state leads to 56% reduction in energy demand in comparison with the conventional process.
