Abstract BACKGROUND The ternary azeotropic tetrahydrofuran, n ‐butanol, and water system is always produced from the waste effluent of γ ‐butyrolactone production units. The separation of this system using economically and environmentally efficient processes is essential for environmental protection and resource recovery. RESULTS Two alternative triple‐column pressure‐swing distillation (TCPSD) processes were developed to separate the ternary azeotropic tetrahydrofuran, n ‐butanol, and water mixture based on thermodynamic strategies. Then, the process was optimized to obtain the optimal decision variables, with economic and environmental performance metrics adopted as the optimization objectives. Process intensification strategies, including heat integration (HI) and heat pump (HP), were adopted to decrease energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. The results illustrated that HI‐assisted TCPSD processes achieve reductions of approximately 11–20% of cost and 15–20% of CO 2 emissions. Furthermore, HP‐assisted TCPSD processes yield more substantial improvements, with cost and CO 2 emissions reduced by about 18–22% and 32–40%, respectively. CONCLUSION Overall, TCPSD processes incorporating HI or HP technologies demonstrate superior economic and environmental performance compared to the conventional process. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).
Ding et al. (Sun,) studied this question.