Distillation interlinked columns

Floquet et al. (1985) proposed a tree searching algorithm in order to synthesize chemical processes involving reactor/separator/recycle systems interlinked with recycle streams. The reactor network of this approach is restricted to a single isothermal CSTR or PFR unit, and the separation units are considered to be simple distillation columns. The conversion of reactants into products, the temperature of the reactor, as well as the reflux ratio of the distillation columns were treated as parameters. Once the values of the parameters have been specified, the composition of the outlet stream of the reactor can be estimated and application of the tree searching algorithm on the alternative separation tasks provides the less costly distillation sequence. The problem is solved for several values of the parameters and conclusions are drawn for different regions of operation. 

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