Use of Ion-Exchange Resin in Reactive Separation

Abstract

In the last few years, we have seen a dramatic increase in the application of reactive separation processes to various fields including pharmaceutical, chemical, biochemical, agrochemical, petrochemicals, fragrances, food and biotechnology industries. Reactive separation process synchronizes the reaction and separation processes in a single reactor. Usually, the separation processes were performed in different columns for reaction followed by separation. The key players of these reactive separation processes are heterogeneous catalysts, among which ion-exchange resins are most promising, efficient and economical. The use of ion-exchange resins not only overcome the problems associated with conventional separation technologies but also become an economical and flexible choice. This chapter introduces the conceptual understanding of reactive separation processes such as reactive distillation, reactive extraction, reactive chromatography and reactive absorption in different areas and the use of ion-exchange resin in these processes.