Functional Design of Integrated Reaction and Separation Processes
Special Symposium - EPIC-1: European Process Intensification Conference - 1
EPIC-1: Intensified Plants & Process Integration (IPPI)
Keywords: process synthesis, process intensification, process integration, conceptual design
The integration of reaction and separation into one process unit offers huge potential for material and energy saving in chemical industry. In principle, a chemical reaction can be integrated with any separation process. However, besides some very successful reactive distillation processes (e.g. Eastman’s methyl acetate production) not a lot of applications have found their way into industrial application. This can partly be explained by the reduction of degrees of freedom in the design variables which comes intrinsically along with process integration. But another major hurdle for industrial application of integrated reaction and separation systems seams to be posted by just overlooking promising integration options during the synthesis of a new process. Therefore, this contribution will present a comprehensive process synthesis procedure, which focuses on the conceptual design of integrating reaction and separation and which covers a combination of a reaction step with any separation technology.
The backbone of the synthesis method presented is a generic view on integrated reaction and separation processes using 4 building blocks representing basic functions in such processes: reaction, separation, reactive separation and mixing. Based on key chemical and physical properties these functions are arranged such that their overall spatial distribution in the process leads to an optimal process design.
The functional design procedure is demonstrated by applying it to combinations of chemical reactions with distillation, adsorption and extraction. In addition, its generic character will be proven by an application to bio-catalytic reactions.
Presented Wednesday 19, 16:00 to 16:20, in session EPIC-1: Intensified Plants & Process Integration (IPPI).
