Optimum design of coupled atmospheric reaction-vacuum distillation technology for benzyl chloride production

The coupled atmospheric reaction-vacuum distillation technology, that is a distillation column connected with side reactors, is employed in the production of benzyl chloride. An independent reaction amount is introduced in the reactor model to simulate the process. Moreover, a systematic design approach based on the Powell method is developed to seek the optimum configuration parameters. The effects of the design parameters, such as the number of stages in the distillation column, the number of stages between adjacent reactors and the number of reactors, on the process performance are well investigated. Results demonstrate that with the given vapor boilup rate, insufficient separation leads to a poor system performance, and excessive stages or reactors will not be benefit for the improvement of the reaction capability. The optimum match between reaction operation and separation operation can be achieved with the optimum design parameters obtained through the process design approach.