Reactive separation unit

Figure 1 Reactive separation units as multifunctional reactors. (Inspired by Ref. 4.)...

In order to model large industrial reactive separation units, a proper subdivision of a column apparatus into smaller elements is usually necessary. These elements (the so-called stages) are identified with real trays or segments of a packed column. They can be described using different theoretical concepts, with a wide range of physicochemical assumptions and accuracy. 

The approximation of Eq. (Bl) allows one to reduce Eqs. (A10) and (A11) to a linearized boundary-value problem (183,184,186). The latter can then be solved analytically and yields a compact matrix-form solution for the concentration profiles in the film region [58], Such a solution gives simple analytical expressions for the component fluxes with regard to the homogeneous reaction in the fluid films (see Ref. 135), which can be of particular value when large industrial reactive separation units are considered and designed. 

The possibility of combining a reaction unit and a separation unit into one reactive separation unit has not been considered in this chapter. However, some of the textbooks, Coulson et al.2 and Seader and Henley,1 give a brief discussion of this type of equipment for distillation and absorption, respectively. A lot of research has also been devoted to this type of operation in recent years and it is generally believed that it will become more widely used in the future. 

Equation (21) represents one of the best approaches to the modeling of complex reaction systems providing a satisfactory representation for many rate processes (see, e.g., Refs. [19, 76-78]). It has gained widespread acceptance in various chemical and reactor engineering areas [79], and is also recommended for use in the modeling of reactive separation operations [14, 78]. For the design of large industrial reactive separation units, the analytical solution (Eqs. (19), (20)) can be considered as a useful simplification as compared to numerical methods. 

Kenig Modeling of Reactive Separation Units with Structured Packings... 

To build up a hydrodynamic analogy for columns equipped with SP, substantial features of the fluid flow have to be revealed and captured. Let us consider an example of a gas/vapor-liquid (reactive) separation unit filled with a non-catalytic structured packing (Shilkin and Kenig, 2005a). 

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