Reactive Separation Processes

This book summarizes the available information in six known areas of reactive separation: reaction/distillation, reaction/extraction, reaction/absorption, reaction/adsorption, reaction/membrane, and reaction/crystallization.

This book describes, analyses and discusses the main principles, phenomena and design strategies of reactive separation processes with an emphasis on the intensification as a basis of the sustainability. Different reactive separation processes are explained in detail to show the phenomena and with the purpose of understanding when their use allows advantages based on the output results. Case examples are analysed and the perspective of these processes in the future is discussed. The overall sustainability of reactive separation processes in the industry is also explained separately.

Process intensifi cation aims for increasing effi ciency and sustainability of (bio-)chemical production processes. This book presents strategies for the intensifi cation of fluid separation processes such as reactive distillation, reactive absorption and membrane assisted separations. The authors discuss theoretical fundamentals, model development, methods for synthesis and the design as well as scale-up and industrial process applications.

Process intensification aims for increasing efficiency and sustainability of (bio-)chemical production processes. This book presents strategies for improving fluid separation such as reactive distillation, reactive absorption and membrane assisted separations. The authors discuss computer simulation, model development, methodological approaches for synthesis and the design and scale-up of final industrial processes.

In a reactive distillation column, both the chemical conversion and the distillative separation of the product mixture are carried out simultaneously. Through this integrative strategy, chemical equilibrium limitations can be overcome, higher selectivities can be achieved and heat of reaction can be directly used for distillation. Increased process efficiency and reduction of investments and operational costs are the direct results of this approach. Highly renowned international experts from both industry and academia review the state-of-the-art and the future directions in application, design, analysis and control of Reactive Distillation processes. Part I surveys various industrial applications and covers both established large scale processes as well as new chemical reaction schemes with high future potential. Part II provides the vital details for analysis of reactive phase equilibria, and discusses the importance of chemical reaction kinetics, while Part III focuses on identifying feasible column configurations and designing their internal structure. Analysis and control of the complex dynamic and steady-state behavior of reactive distillation processes are described in Part IV. Reactive Distillation - a very promising alternative to conventional reaction-distillation flow schemes.

Economic needs as well as ecological demands are major driving forces in improving chemical processes and plants. To meet these goals processes have to be intensified in order to get products of higher quality, to increase yield by reducing or even suppressing by-products and to minimise energy consumption. A preferred principle for such intensifications is process - tegration, especially integration of reaction and separation operations. S- entific research in this field has been boosted by certain extremely succe- ful examples like the Eastman-Kodak process for methyl acetate or the MTBE process which are milestones for this method. In 2002 the German Research Foundation defined process integration as one of the major - search topics for the next decade. In 1998 the Department of Biochemical- and Chemical Engineering at the University of Dortmund decided to pool its activities for concerted - forts in process integration and to form a joint research cluster. Our interest was to find out the general challenges as well as obstacles of integrated processes and to work out methods for their design and valuation. Soon it became clear that theoretical work only cannot give reasonable answers.

Separation processes—or processes that use physical, chemical, or electrical forces to isolate or concentrate selected constituents of a mixture—are essential to the chemical, petroleum refining, and materials processing industries. In this volume, an expert panel reviews the separation process needs of seven industries and identifies technologies that hold promise for meeting these needs, as well as key technologies that could enable separations. In addition, the book recommends criteria for the selection of separations research projects for the Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technology.

After an overview of the fundamentals, limitations, and scope of reactive distillation, this book uses rigorous models for steady-state design and dynamic analysis of different types of reactive distillation columns and quantitatively compares the economics of reactive distillation columns with conventional multi-unit processes. It goes beyond traditional steady-state design that primarily considers the capital investment and energy costs when analyzing the control structure and the dynamic robustness of disturbances, and discusses how to maximize the economic and environmental benefits of reactive distillation technology.