(176f) How to Decide When and How Much to Use Reactive Distillation: a Case Study on Mtbe System

Process design deals with both synthesis and optimization steps. Here by process synthesis we mean, to create the best process structures, and by optimization we mean the choice of the best set of operating conditions. The intensive use of computer software has hugely increased our ability to find optimal solutions; thus finding the set of alternatives structures has become the bottleneck in the process design task.

In this paper we propose a simple method based on a thermodynamic approach to decide on the best process structure. We consider the reactive distillation process as a combination of the individual separation and reaction vector fields and then look at how these vectors combine in different regions of the composition space. These geometric insights are then interpreted in term of their structural implications. These vector maps (together with the Iso-separation and Iso-rate contours) provide a powerful tool at the early stage of process synthesis when one is making decisions about the structure of the plant. We illustrate the ideas by looking at the MTBE system.

Author Keyword: Reactive distillation References

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