Intensified azeotropic distillation A novel, industrially viable approach to direct amidation

摘要

Intensifying the boil up rate of azeotropic reactive distillation offers a novel and industrially viable means of increasing the rate of condensation reactions. The strategy can be as effective as using a catalyst and may lend itself to continuous operation. When applied to the condensation of carboxylic acids and amines such intensification provides an environmentally-benign route to a variety of amides. The impact of intensified azeotropic distillation on direct amidation using both a production scale batch reactor and a cascade of CSTRs is discussed and compared.