Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.33, No.9, 2174-2179, 1994
Reactive Distillation and Kinetic Azeotropy
The general pattern of trajectories of equilibrium distillation with nonequilibrium reversible reaction in the liquid phase is discussed. In some cases there is a continuous line of singular points belonging to different ratios of the evaporation rate and the reaction rate. These points are the kinetic azeotropes. When this line has a common intersection point with the hypersurface of chemical equilibrium, then the evaporation ratio approaches zero at the intersection point and the equilibrium reactive azeotrope, described by Barbosa and Doherty, exists there. The continuation of the kinetic azeotropy line after crossing the equilibrium surface is not a set of singular points. The stationary point of reactive distillation can be controlled, along the line of kinetic azeotropy, by the evaporation ratio.
Keywords:PHASE-DIAGRAMS