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Interaction of separation and reactive stages on ETBE reactive distillation columns
Author(s) -
Bisowarno Budi H.,
Tian YuChu,
Tadé Moses O.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.10058
Subject(s) - reactive distillation , distillation , chemistry , multiplicity (mathematics) , process engineering , separation (statistics) , column (typography) , fractionating column , chromatography , engineering , computer science , mechanical engineering , mathematics , connection (principal bundle) , mathematical analysis , machine learning
Abstract Reactive distillation is a favorable alternative to conventional series of reactor‐distillation processes for ether productions. However, the design of such columns is complicated due to the interaction between vapor‐liquid equilibrium and reaction rates. There are conflicting reports on whether adding excessive separation stages degrade the column performance. A comparison is made of several designs of single and double feed reactive distillation columns for ETBE production to investigate the effects of separation and reaction stages on the overall performance. The explanations are presented using simulation results, whose mathematical models are written in the Aspen Plus environment. The results confirm that a conservative approach by adding extra separation and reaction stages can be applied to reactive distillation design. However, output multiplicity may be observed for longer column and should be considered in the early design phase. © 2004 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 50: 646–653, 2004