Feasibility Study of Reactive Distillation Using the Analysis of the Statics

Various aspects related to the feasibility and design of continuous reactive distillation processes are addressed in this paper. The recent developments in the field of reactive distillation design are discussed. Then, a new type of reliable and systematic design method, which is based on the “static analysis”, is explained. In this method, using minimal information about the physicochemical properties of the reaction mixture, the possible degree of conversion and the location of the reactive zone are calculated. The main feature of this method is that conventional distillation lines can be used in the analysis by assuming an infinite separation efficiency. The results of applying this method to the production of MTBE show that the feed region is classified into several subregions, each of which has different characteristics.