Heat Integrated Reactive Distillation Column (r-HIDiC): Implementing a New Technology Distillation

摘要

Currently, several heat integration techniques have been studied, e.g. HIDiC column,rnshowing a diminution in energy consumption in relation to conventional distillationrncolumn. In this work, an approach for process intensification in distillation columns isrnstudied by merging both reactive distillation and heat integrated distillation columnrnprinciples, resulting in the heat integrated reactive distillation column (r-HIDiC). Arnsimulation study has been performed in order to compare the performance of reactiverndistillation column and r-HIDiC column in the synthesis of tert-amyl methyl etherrn(TAME). It was found that due to internal energy integration, the r-HIDiC columnrnachieves a better performance with energy saving around 8%. In addition, it can be seenrnthat the possibility of r-HIDiC column to operate at different pressures between thernrectifying and stripping sections permits to overcome separation limitations resultingrnfrom presence of azeotropes.