Development of the Reaction/Distillation matrix to include more complicated Reaction/Distillation systems and performance evaluation using an ethylene hydration case study

Reaction/Separation systems are very important in chemical industries and synthesis of all possible configurations for these systems is necessary for finding the best process alternative. An algorithm for synthesis of different alternatives for reaction-distillation systems is presented in this paper. The presented algorithm is a developed version of the Separation Matrix which has been introduced for generation of different distillation sequences. An initial version of the Reaction/Distillation matrix for a two-component reaction prevailing within a four-component system has already been introduced by the authors. The current research is the expansion of the previous work to include multiple reactions in a system containing any number of reactive and non-reactive components. This algorithm can also generate the sequences including components forming binary azeotropes. For performance evaluation purposes, a case study including two reactions is presented in which a binary azeotrope is formed between two components. The possible sequences for the system are generated using the introduced algorithm and the obtained sequences are simulated and compared in terms of total annual cost.