Reaction/distillation matrix algorithm development to cover sequences containing reactive HIDiC: Validation in optimized process of dimethyl carbonate production

Reaction/distillation matrix for reactive distillation is one of the systematic algorithms to generate different possible sequences of distillation columns containing reactive distillation. This study presents a systematic algorithm for producing all forms of heat-integrated distillation columns. To do this, the latest version of reaction/distillation matrix was modified to the reactive distillation systems in which one of the reactants is almost consumed. Then, this algorithm was developed to generate different possible heat-integrated configurations which can save energy consumption effectively. The developed algorithm not only produces new configurations of internal and external heat-integrated distillation columns, but also previously introduced ones. Dimethyl carbonate production process is selected as the case study to evaluate the developed algorithm. All possible sequences were developed and then optimized using genetic algorithm under the best conditions of high product purities and reaction conversion. Different configurations of heat-integrated processes were simulated under the optimized conditions and then compared with each other in terms of reaction conversion, energy consumption, capital and operating costs, and total annual costs (TAC). Results showed that the best sequence could reduce total energy consumption and TAC by approximately 42% and 44%, respectively, compared to the conventional optimized process.