Co-process intensification in the synthesis and design of reactive double dividing-wall distillation columns

Abstract

In most cases, the reactive single dividing-wall distillation column (R-SDWDC) and its corresponding conventional reactive distillation system (CRDS) fail to yield the best performance in the separations of reacting mixtures with unfavorable reaction kinetics and/or unfavorable thermodynamics properties. In this work, a novel methodology of co-process intensification is proposed for the synthesis and design of reactive dividing-wall distillation columns. The methodology leads to the establishment of a reactive double dividing-wall distillation column (R-DDWDC), and the included intermediate separating section plays a vital role in coordinating these two kinds of process intensification and consequently guarantees its optimum performance. In terms of two example systems involving the separations of the ideal quaternary reversible reaction with a somewhat unfavorable ranking of relative volatilities (A + B ↔ C + D with αA > αC > αB > αD) and the transesterification of methyl acetate with n-propanol, the proposed methodology is evaluated. The R-DDWDC is found to yield much better performance than the CRDS and R-SDWDC in the separations of the reacting mixtures with somewhat unfavorable ranking of relative volatilities, and such outcomes definitely corroborate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed methodology for process development. Although the proposed methodology is developed solely based on the separations of the reacting mixtures with somewhat unfavorable ranking of relative volatilities, it is of great implication to the separations of the other reacting mixtures with unfavorable reaction kinetics and/or unfavorable thermodynamics properties.