Morphological analysis for the development of reliable models for heterogeneously catalysed reactive distillation

A morphological analysis of models of heterogeneously catalysed reactive distillation (HCRD) is presented. The coordinates of the analysis are the degree of superposition of reaction and distillation (completely superimposed/sequentially alternating) and the reactor model (continuous stirred tank reactor/plug flow reactor). Simulation results that are based on systematic HCRD experiments carried out with two different types of catalytic internals (catalytic packings and the D+R tray) and two different test system (butyl acetate and hexyl acetate) are used for the development and validation of the morphological analysis. The morphological analysis can be used for testing simulations for sensitivity to the choice of the model as well as for assessing whether the performance of a HCRD column at the chosen design point is sensitive to the choice of the catalytic internals. The morphological analysis provides also valuable information for the development of new models for catalytic internals. In this work, a new model for catalytic packings of the Katapak type is presented. The new packing model is able to describe HCRD experiments predictively where both the reactive equilibrium stage model and the rate-based model fail.

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► Presentation of a morphological analysis.
► Useful tool for model development and design of reactive distillation processes.
► Testing simulations for sensitivity to the choice of the model.
► Testing the set-up for sensitivity to the choice of the catalytic internals.
► Development of a new model for catalytic packings of the Katapak type.