Reactive Distillation Technology for Cleaner Production of Chemicals on Industrial Scale

Considerable progress was made by the chemical industry in the development and implementation of cleaner production processes via Reactive Distillation (RD) technology. The main challenge for reactor engineering is to ascertain the scientifically based cleaner technologies necessary for meeting the future energy, environmental, and materials needs of the world. Minimisation of direct or indirect CO₂ emission for energy intensive processes is precedence for reducing their environmental impact. For distillation, this issue is observed in redesigning the separation processes to improve the energy efficiency.

In this paper a new methodology is presented for assessing for cleaner production of chemicals economically. We present here the potential applications of RD technology for cleaner production of industrial chemicals by illustrating case studies. This paper presents the principles of green technology, with case studies of greener technologies, reactive distillation and highlights the economic benefits of adopting environmentally friendly processes. We also describe the positive and negative aspects of typical RD technology and the potential and tradeoffs for RD technology in the context of green engineering principles.