Effect of relative volatility on the design of reactive distillation with side reactors using MINLP optimization

A mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) model for distillation column with side reactors (DCSR) process of a general consecutive reaction was established firstly. Then, the method based upon outerapproximation/equality-relaxation/augmented-penalty (OA/ER/AP) algorithm is proposed as MINLP solver for the optimization calculation of discrete and continuous variables. The effect of relative volatilities between adjacent components on optimal discrete and continuous variables including the number of stripping stages (NS), the number of stages between reactors (NSR), the number of side reactors (NR) and reaction amounts in each reactor was explored. Results show that when relatively volatility between components of consecutive reaction is larger, it requires less NS, NSR and NR. Besides, the reaction amount in side reactors decreases gradually from top to bottom. These results are of guiding significance to the rapid design of DCSR process for consecutive reactions.