Study on isopropanol–acetone–hydrogen chemical heat pump: Liquid phase dehydrogenation of isopropanol using a reactive distillation column

• Reactive distillation column was used for liquid phase dehydrogenation of isopropanol.
• Reactive distillation was much more efficient.
• The performance of the column with various operating conditions was discussed.
• The optimal catalyst amount in reboiler is 13 g.

Chemical heat pump is an alternative for the upgrading of the level of energy sources. The catalytic dehydrogenation of isopropanol occurring at low temperature is a key procedure in the isopropanol/acetone/hydrogen chemical heat pump system. This work examined experimentally the liquid phase dehydrogenation of isopropanol adopting a reactive distillation column. The performance of the reactive distillation column was compared to the one without reactive distillation part. It was found that the liquid phase dehydrogenation of isopropanol using reactive distillation needed less energy and was much more efficient. A further discussion about the performance of reactive distillation demonstrated that the hydrogen produced and the separation of acetone and isopropanol were greatly affected by the catalyst amount, the temperature of the heat source and the reflux ratio. The optimal operating conditions were presented.