DESIGN OF 3-COMPONENT KINETICALLY CONTROLLED REACTIVE DISTILLATION-COLUMNS USING FIXED-POINT METHODS

There is an increasing interest in reactive distillation, which has le d to the development of several good simulation algorithms for modelli ng these systems. In this paper we present a procedure for the design of three-component kinetically controlled reactive distillation column s based on fixed-point methods. Using these methods we have developed an algorithm for calculating the minimum flows in a reactive distillat ion column. For the examples studied we show that the minimum reflux r atio in a kinetically controlled distillation is equal to that for an equilibrium reaction. We also show how to choose specifications that w ill lead to feasible reactive distillation columns. We tested our desi gn results against column simulations and found them to be in good agr eement.