Separation using coupled reactive distillation columns

One of the major problems in the chemical process industries (CPI) is the separation of fluid mixtures into their pure components. The standard technique to tackle this problem is distillation. Unfortunately this technique fails if the boiling points of the components to be separated are very close. However, if these closely boiling components differ considerably in their chemical properties, especially their reactivity, it is possible to separate the reactive components from the mixture by applying a suitable chemical reaction. In this article we explore this principle in more detail, considering the separation of isobutene from a C 4 hydrocarbon mixture, with the clean-fuel additive, MTBE, as an intermediate product in coupled reactive-distillation.