In this chapter, a solvent selection methodology for extractive distillation processes is applied to identify promising ionic liquid (IL) solvents for the following separation cases: methylcyclohexane/toluene, 1-hexene/n-hexane and ethanol/water. Thermodynamic and phase stability analysis are done in order to understand the strong interactions between the solutes and the ionic liquids (solvents...

Design, economics, and plantwide control of a glycerol-tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) etherification plant are presented. The reaction takes place in liquid phase, in a plug flow reactor, using Amberlyst 15 as a catalyst. The products' separation is achieved by two distillation columns where high-purity ethers are obtained and a section involving extractive distillation with 1,4-butanediol as solvent...

The need of reliably solving systems of nonlinear equations often arises in the everyday practice of chemical engineering. In general, standard methods cannot provide theoretical guarantee for convergence to a solution, cannot reliably find multiple solutions, and cannot prove non-existence of solutions. Interval methods provide tools to overcome these problems, thus achieving reliability. To t...

Extractive distillation with salts, unlike other dehydration technologies, is better due to the null toxicity that exists in distillate, since salt cannot be evaporated. With this technology, it possible obtain a high concentration of ethanol, however, there are still problems control columns presence disturbances. The present work deals simulation and an extractive column using CaCl2 as separa...