Synthesis, Design And Control Of Amac Reactive Distillation Column-Intensifying Internal Mass Intregration

As an effective way of strengthening method for traditional chemical process, reactive distillation system has gained renewed interest in recent years. In the chemical process, the performance of reactive distillation column is greatly improved through seeking the further integration of reaction section and separation section. Compared to conventional distillation, reactive distillation has significant advantages in energy-saving and investment-reducing, especially for etherification and esterification. The main object of this paper is to activate the potential of the reactive distillation columns in the chemical process industry.In terms of the ratio between the thermal heat released by the reactions involved and the latent heat of the reacting mixture, reactive distillation columns could be divided into three broad categories:those with highly thermal effect, those with considerably thermal effect and those with negligible or no thermal effect.Although the combination of reaction and separation has been noted for a long time, the practical applications are still rare and most of them are actually about the reactive distillation columns with highly thermal effect, and almost no systematic approach has been proposed regarding the synthesis and design of reactive distillation columns with negligible or no thermal effect.For the reactive distillation columns involving reactions with negligible or no thermal effect, a systematic method for further internal mass integration is proposed to improve the thermodynamic efficiency.The amyl acetate reactive distillation column is studied in this paper, Four strategies, including the superimposition of reactive section onto rectifying and stripping sections, relocation of feed stages, and redistribution of catalyst within the reactive section, can be applied to intensify internal mass integration.All the above philosophies are intensively studied through the operation of the amyl acetate reactive distillation column. The proposed philosophies for deepening internal mass integration could be effective in reducing equipment costs and operating costs, thus the thermodynamic efficiency has also been increased accordingly, at the same time, the controllability and maneuverability of the system have been improved obviously. The obtained results show that deepening internal mass integration could significantly improve the static features, controllability and operability of reactive distillation columns involving reactions with negligible or no thermal effect. These striking results manifest evidently the significance and strong necessity of deepening internal mass integration in the synthesis and design of reactive distillation columns.