Reactive and hybrid separations of chemicals and bioactive substances: Modeling and optimization

Distillation, absorption and extraction belong to the oldest and most mature separation technologies. They require often big columns and are energy intensive. In the chemical processing industry these separations are applied usually for the purification of the products, recycling of solvents or catalysts, etc. and are placed as a last step of a production process, after the chemical reactor(s). The integration of separation and reaction in one single unit operation offer high potentials for process optimisation and has been recognized as an important method for process intensification. Despite of that potential, reactive separation processes, like reactive distillation, reactive extraction and reactive absorption are sometimes recognize by industry as niche solutions only. One of the reasons for that situation is a lack of validated modelling methods of columns for reactive separations or limited knowledge of the model parameters. This paper shows the modelling approaches of different complexity for some reactive separations, gives the recommendations for the most suitable simulation methods and illustrates the necessity for the harmony between the accuracy of the experimental