Reactive distillation
The Distillation reactivates consists with association, within the same apparatus, of a separation by distillation and a reaction.
This technique is indicated for the balanced reactions (e.g., has + B <--> C + D), therefore incomplete. In vertue of the law of Chatelier, if one withdraws, during the reaction, one of the components, balance will move in the direction of formation of this last. The idea of reactive distillation is thus to distill a product of the reaction (e.g., D) in order to obtain a total conversion of the reagents. The interest is mutliple: increase in conversion and the selectivity (parasitic reactions), strong energy integration (one can use the heat of reaction separation)…
The industrial example illustrating best this technique is the production of Acétate of methyl: the traditional process requires an engine and a train of nine fractionating columns. The process of reactive distillation requires only one apparatus combining the two phenomena.
This field of research (still little applied industrially) finds its place in the current movement of intensification of the processes (reduction in the ratio cuts apparatuses/production capacity) aiming at increasing the reliability like reducing the cost (financial, energy, environmental…) processes.
Notes and references of the article
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