Optimal Structure of Reactive and Non-Reactive Stages in Reactive Distillation Processes

DOMANCICH A.O; BRIGNOLE N.B.; HOCH P.M.

Chemical Engineering Transactions

Año: 2007 p. 85 - 90

Reactive distillation columns constitute a clear example of process intensification. The significant improvement achieved by a process is what we call “process intensification”. For example, the entire plant design is upgraded by reducing the number of units involved in a conventional process to obtain the same products.However, reactive distillation is not suitable for every process where reaction and separation steps occur. Operating conditions, such as pressure and temperature of the reactive and separation processes and perhaps other requirements, must overlap in order to assure the feasibility of the combined process. This limitation can be overcome by fixing adequate operating conditions in the cases where it is possible to do so.Reactive distillation has been presented as a multifunctional reactor, where the reactive and separation tasks are combined into a single unit, thus reducing investment costs. The advantages of this configuration have already been reported (Stankiewicz, 2003). Though a thorough review on the design methods for reactive distillation can be found in Almeida-Rivera et al. (2004), a systematic analysis of the performance of reactive distillation columns when structural variables are changed has not been presented yet.