(740c) Stereo Graphical Method for Feasibility Analysis of Reactive Distillation

Stereo Graphical method for feasibility analysis
of reactive distillation

Xin Gao^{a, b}, Hong Li^{a, b, [*]},
Xiaoyu Sun^a, Xingang Li^{a, b}

^a School of Chemical Engineering and technology, Tianjin University,
Tianjin 300072, China

^b National Engineering Research
Center of Distillation Technology, Tianjin 300072, China

Abstract

The Stereo Graphical
(SG) method is a novel convenient, reliable, and systematic approach for
feasibility studies of reactive distillation. This method was developed by
innovatively taking temperature into account. Reactive distillation studies
using SG can be established based on traditional methods, which visualize the
temperature. The exact reactive distillation curve of a given system can be acquired
when the given operation pressure kept constant, such that this curve describes
the reaction zone of the reactive distillation process. The feasibility of using reactive distillation in a reaction system can
be assessed using SG (feasibility study), thereby providing useful information
such as the feasible range of feed composition and the need for a non-reaction
zone. In this paper, three cases were used to elaborate the application of the
proposed SG method. Reactive distillation was proven feasible for the methyl
tert-butyl ether, ethyl tert-butyl ether, and tert-amyl methyl ether systems.
Given the large differences in their reaction
equilibrium constants, these systems differ in terms of the details of their
conceptual designs. This method is expected to have accurate results
when it is conveniently applied in the study of other reaction systems.