4 Tatranské Matliare, Slovak Republic, May 26 – 30, 2003

INTELLIGENT COLUMN INTERNALS FOR REACTIVE

SEPARATIONS
Andrzej Górak1, Eugeny Y.Kenig1, Peter Moritz2, Hartmut Schoenmakers3, Florian Menter4
Mieczysław Jaroszyński5, Andrzej Kołodziej5*
1
University of Dortmund, Chem. Eng. Department, Dortmund, Germany; 2Sulzer AG, Winterthur-
Switzerland; 3BASF AG, Ludwigshafen, Germany; 4AEA Technology GmbH, Otterfing, Germany;
5
Inst. of Chem. Eng. of Polish Acad. of Sciences, Gliwice, Poland; *corresponding author; e-mail
ask@iich.gliwice.pl, phone +48 32 2310811, fax +48 32 2310318

Keywords: reactive distillation, structure catalytic packings, CFD, TAME, rate-based modeling

The study presents the idea, organisation and the main achievements of the large European Project
Intelligent Column Internals for Reactive Separations (INTINT) which started in 2000 and was completed in
2003. Reactive separations (RS), and especially reactive distillation (RD) has been gaining special attention due
to the increasing market of ether compounds (MTBE, TAME) of unleaded fuels. Numerous studies are published
(roughly one hundred annually) and some industrial plants are built. However, several difficulties limit
expansion of this promising technology. Process modelling, design of catalytic column internals, their
hydrodynamic and transport properties, as well as thermodynamics and kinetics of heterogeneously catalysed
chemical reactions are still not entirely mastered. Last development in the modelling of RD processes has been
fairly advanced, whereas the knowledge on reactive column internals and their characteristics remains
insufficient.
This paper discussed a novel approach to the design of catalytic column internals. The key idea is to enable
process optimisation based on the development of new, process-specific, "tailor-made" column internals, not
available in the manufacturers’catalogues. An end-user would create and optimise the internals for a specific
process virtually, and then a supplier would manufacture them. In order to realise this approach, three software
tools have been developed:
• Artificial intelligence expert system ADVISER for decision support during the internals pre-selection.
ADVISER summarise the knowledge of many experts and is supplied by a database containing RS
cases.
• Detailed rate-based process simulation tool PROFILER for modelling and design of specific RS
processes. The tool considers the actual rates of mass and heat transport as well as chemical reactions
directly in the equations governing the stage phenomena. Mass transfer is described via the two-film
model.
• Advanced computational fluid dynamics tool INTINT-CFX enabling estimation of hydraulic and mass
transfer parameters for virtual internals during the design stage (when the internals still do not exist
physically). Such virtual experiments constitute the key challenge of the project, as they can reduce
significantly the number of expensive hydrodynamic and mass transfer experiments.
This unique and sophisticated software requires a solid validation based on experimental results. Therefore, a
large experimental programme is performed comprising
• system-related parameters: vapour-liquid equilibria, reaction kinetics, component and mixture physical
properties;
• internals-related parameters: pressure drop, liquid hold-up, separation efficiency, mass transfer,
residence time distribution;
• pilot-plant experiments: homogeneous and heterogeneous reactive distillation and reactive stripping in
test columns up to 600mm in diameter.
Five different column internals (structured, with and without solid catalyst, as well as monolithic), each of them
in two modifications, have been designed, manufactured and experimentally studied.
The Project Consortium consists of 15 Partners representing Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom,
Finland, Switzerland, Romania and Poland: three chemical and petrochemical companies, one large and one
small (SME) internals manufacturer, a software-house, three research institutes and six universities (chemical
engineering departments).