Homogeneous azeotropic pressure swing distillation: Continuous and batch process

The separation of a binary homogeneous azeotropic mixture using pressure swing distillation will be analysed on the example of acetonitrile/water. Two different processes are considered: the continuous heat- and mass-integrated process and the inverted batch process. For both processes a model is developed and experimental data are given. In the paper the potential of the pressure swing distillation for the separation of binary homogenous azeotropic mixtures will be demonstrated, in particular the process performance is investigated and application aspects for the continuous as well as the inverted batch process are discussed.