Minimum energy demand and split feasibility for a class of reactive distillation columns

A new approach for the calculation of the minimum energy demand (MED) of reactive distillation columns is presented here. Continuous distillation boundaries in the limit of chemical reaction equilibrium are used to determine minimum energy demand of the process. At the same time, split feasibility can be confirmed. The method is applicable to mixtures without or with phase split if the number of independent components equals two. A similar concept has been applied to conceptual design of heteroazeotropic distillation columns. It carries over to reactive distillation because both processes are characterized by strongly curved composition profiles in composition space. The method is illustrated by two esterification examples. one of them showing liquid phase split in the rectifying section.