Thermally Coupled Distillation Systems: Study of an Energy-efficient Reactive Case

F. O. Barroso-Muñoz, S. Hernández, J. G. Segovia-Hernández, H. Hernández-Escoto and A. F. Aguilera-Alvarado

Abstract
Thermally coupled distillation systems (TCSD) have become excellent means to achieve important energy savings and consequently lesser capital investment for multicomponent-mixture separations. Reports, concerning the design, the operation and the control of those systems have recently been published, therefore allowing a practical implementation for the chemical industry. In this contribution the production of the compound ethyl acetate is studied, using three distinct thermally coupled distillation systems to carry out the purported reaction-separation process. Two of the distillation systems are arranged with side columns (stripper or rectifier) and the third one is the Petlyuk column. The thermally coupled system arranged with the side stripper shows some advantages in comparison with the thermally coupled system to which a side rectifier has been considered, because the former reduces the energy demanded by utilizing the traditional process, removing additionally the water produced in the chemical reaction avoiding the known azeotrope condition for this mixture, allowing a higher ethyl acetate compound production. A similar advantageous result has been observed in the case regarding the Petlyuk distillation column. Furthermore, this latter scheme turns out to be more a conveniently proposed system than the TCDS with the arranged side stripper given a lesser demanded energy.

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Keywords
Thermally coupled systems, chemical reaction, ethyl acetate, energy savings