Process intensification of reactive separator networks through the IDEAS conceptual framework

A method to rigorously identify the performance limits of a reactive separator network is presented in this paper. The quantification of the enhancement potential for a given technology can greatly benefit process intensification studies in the pursuit of radical improvements. The Infinite DimEnsionAl State-Space (IDEAS) conceptual framework is first reviewed and then shown to be capable of assessing the potential for process intensification of reactive separation processes. The IDEAS framework is employed to formulate an infinite linear program (ILP) that can synthesize optimal reactive separation networks, and establish rigorous tradeoffs between total network reactive holdup, and total network capacity. The proposed reactive separation process intensification method is demonstrated on a case study involving the metathesis of 2-pentene through reactive distillation. Significant intensification over prior designs is demonstrated.