In 1938, Smoker proposed an analytical closed form formula to calculate the number of stages in a binary distillation column. The equation assumes constant relative volatility and constant molar overflow. For many mixtures, it is practical to assume constant relative volatility. However, the latent heat of vaporization of the different components are generally not equal and hence, the analytica...

Two different alternatives for etherification of glycerol (G) with tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) are developed and analyzed. The conventional reaction separation recycle system uses a plug-flow reactor to perform the reaction in liquid phase, in the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst (Amberlyst 15). The separation of the products from reactants is achieved by two distillation columns where pure gl...

The present work is to simulate and analyze pressure-swing distillation process for azeotropic IBA-IBAc separation using CHEMCAD simulation software. The total number of feed plates, reflux ratio in first column and total number of plates, operating pressure and the feed stream concentration of IBA for the second column are varied to find the optimum feed plate location, to get the desired outp...

Dimethyl ether (DME) is of great industrial interest due to its use as clean fuel for diesel engines or in combustion cells, as a precursor to other organic compounds, as well as a green aerosol propellant that can effectively replace chloro-fluoro-carbons. Conventionally, high purity DME is synthesized by dehydration of methanol produced from syngas, in a process involving a catalytic fixed-be...

The novel COMET process for the production of OME 3-5 from MeOH and FA(aq.) solves challenging H 2 O management using a reactive distillation column. main units are state-of-the-art were experimentally demonstrated.