A short method for the design of reactive distillation column

In this study, a short method for the design of reactive distillation is presented. The method is based on distillation lines and tray-by-tray calculations, and a new strategy is suggested to locate the reflux ratio, the number of stages, and feed tray. The material balances are solved from the outside (top and bottom) to the inside of the distillation column (feed), to ensure that the product compositions are met. To reduce the numerical difficulties, the method is based on the application of reaction-invariant composition variables. The synthesis of MTBE with the presence of inert is used as case of study to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. Our strategy provides the number of theoretical stages, operating reflux ratio, and the feed tray location. The results obtained with our strategy show a significant agreement compared with those obtained with commercial simulator ASPEN PLUS ® .