Shortcut design of reactive distillation columns

Shortcut design methods can be valuable tools for rapid screening of different separation process alternatives to assess feasibility and determine minimum energy demand. This work presents a variant of the feed angle method (Kraemer et al., 2011), which applies to single- and double-feed reactive distillation columns. The proposed method relies on pinch point analysis and determines the minimum energy demand from the calculation of a tray at the feed pinch. It is fully algorithmic and insensitive to impurities in product specifications. Its validity and performance is illustrated by a variety of case studies covering multi-component and multi-reaction systems, mixtures with potential liquid–liquid phase split, and double-feed columns. The results show that the method is sufficiently accurate and computationally efficient, even for highly non-ideal systems and complex configurations.

► Feed angle method (FAM) is developed to cover the shortcut design of reactive distillation columns. ► Industrial application of the shortcut method to multi-component, multi-reaction, and multi-phase systems are presented. ► The extension of the method to double feed reactive distillation column is discussed. ► The method is fully algorithmic and applicable to mixtures with any number of components. ► The method gives a true view of minimum energy consisting of different reactive distillation columns as well as feasibility assessment.