DESIGN OF 3-COMPONENT KINETICALLY CONTROLLED REACTIVE DISTILLATION-COLUMNS USING FIXED-POINT METHODS

There is an increasing interest in reactive distillation, which has led to the development of several good simulation algorithms for modelling these systems. In this paper we present a procedure for the design of three-component kinetically controlled reactive distillation columns based on fixed-point methods. Using these methods we have developed an algorithm for calculating the minimum flows in a reactive distillation column. For the examples studied we show that the minimum reflux ratio in a kinetically controlled distillation is equal to that for an equilibrium reaction. We also show how to choose specifications that will lead to feasible reactive distillation columns. We tested our design results against column simulations and found them to be in good agreement.