Key design decision variables in RD

Conceptual Design of Reactive Distillation Processes A Review  

This chapter provides an exhaustive overview on current design methodologies with application to reactive distillation processing. By no means the presented material should be regarded as the ultimate overview, specially due to the dynamic developments lately experienced by RD research. The overview ends with a list of scientific literature 

A qualitative analysis of the features that play relevant roles in RD design result in the definition of an integrated strategy. This approach -termed multiechelon approach and extensively described in chapter 4- combines systematically the capabilities and complementary strengths of available graphical and optimization-based methods. 

Recalling the engineering and scientific design questions given in chapter 1, in this chapter we address question 4, namely, 

The graphical methods are called so, because the decisions are made on the basis of graphical information. This information is often generated using models. These approaches rely on the behavior of residue curves or distillation lines and may be classified into two well-defined trends i) methods based on thermodynamic-topological analysis of distillation lines and ii), methods based on composition transformations. 

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