Coupling chemical reaction with distillation: Thermodynamic analysis and practical applications

Method of choosing and analysis of stationary regimes of reactive distillat ion, designated in the present work as the "static analysis", is offered. T he given method permits to consider a complete set of steady states of reac tive distillation, to choose the regimes with maximum degree of conversion of reagents and to find variants of process organization appropriate to the m. The validity of such an analysis is confirmed experimentally. On its bas is a number of industrial technologies are developed. In the work the advan tages of the use of a multifunctionality principle (Westerterp, 1993) in th e case of a coupling chemical reaction with distillation in single apparatu s are shown. As an example the design of the flow sheet of acetaldehyde pro duction on the basis of reactive-distillation process is conducted. (C) 199 9 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.