Real Ternary System MTBE-Synthesis

MTBE (Methyl.-tert-butylether) is produced by reacting isobutene and methanol (MeOH) in the liquid phase  

Venimadhavan et al. [4, 7] studied the effect of the reaction kinetics on the singular point bifurcations of this system in a reactive reboiler. These authors reported one kinetic pinch point at Dar = 0.166. Below, we describe the PSPS and locate the singular points by intersecting the PSPS with the kinetic surfaces. The VLE parameters and the kinetics are taken from Venimadhavan et al. [4], 

For the considered reaction system, MTBE is taken as the reference component and MeOH is chosen as independent component. Then, the PSPS is described by 

In Fig. 4.7, the PSPS is depicted together with the kinetic surfaces at four selected reboiler Damkohler numbers. At nonreactive conditions (i.e., Dar= 0 Fig. 4.7(a)), 

4 Thermodynamic and Kinetic Effects on the Feasible Products of Reactive Distillation 

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