The internally heat-integrated distillation column -HIDiC- shows great potential in reducing energy consumption in distillation processes. Basically, it is a concentric column unit where the rectifying section works at higher pressure and temperature, allowing energy to be transferred to the stripping unit. Currently, this unitary operation is not a reality in the industry, and requires different studies to shift to an industrial scale. This research focuses on four different configurations of the HIDiC (middle, top, bottom and total – same amount of transfer panels along the sections) for the benzene-toluene mixture, allowing the comparison of energy consumption when using the conventional unit. This research presents a new perspective in separation processes using the Aspen Plus process simulator for obtaining the mathematical model and energy calculations; the different configurations for the column have wide perspective in separation processes
