The Reactive Distillation Process

Reactive Distillation vs. Traditional Distillation

• Traditional distillation requires two major components; a chemical reactor, which contains the chemical mixture to be separated, and a still, in which the mixture is boiled and separated. These two components are always separate instruments in traditional distillation. However, in reactive distillation, the chemical reactor and still are combined into one unit that performs both functions.

Reactive Distillation Process

• Reactive distillation begins much like traditional distillation. The input mixture goes into the reactor column of the dual purpose unit. The mixture is gradually heated until it separates into its chemical components. One part of the mixture will become vapor and will travel further up the column where it condenses and is removed. The other portion of the mixture remains in the reactor area or is filtered into another container.

Benefits

• Because reactive distillation combined two components into one, it is somewhat less expensive than other distillation methods that require a separate reactor and still. Reactive distillation is also slightly faster than traditional distillation because the separated chemicals do not need to be transferred to another component. Lastly, reactive distillation uses less energy and produces less waste and byproducts than other distillation processes.

Drawbacks

• The chemical reactor/still combination in reactive distillation does not perform the task of distillation as effective as two separate devices do because some efficiency is lost when the two devices are combined. Also, for some chemical mixtures, the conditions that are optimal for distillation and reaction are too different to be performed in one unit, so reactive distillation is simply not effective in these cases.

Other Information

• Reactive distillation is especially well-suited to esterification, in which esters are produced by reacting oxoacid with a hydroxyl compound like an alcohol or phenol. It is also used in the following scientific processes: acetylation, alkylation, etherification, isomerization and several others.