Chemical Engineering Science, Vol.56, No.2, 387-394, 2001
Reactive distillation - industrial applications, process design & scale-up
Currently, there is considerable industrial interest in multifunctional reactors involving in-situ separation of products from the reactants. Reactive distillation is one of the most promising candidates for in-situ product removal. There are two major benefits of reactive distillation operation. First, higher conversions due to shifting the equilibrium to the product side. Second, improved selectivities due to removal of products from the reaction zone. Both benefits are exemplified in the following by the cleavage of tertiary butyl alcohol. The scope of this paper, is to point out process synthesis and design tools From the industrial point of view.