GUEST LECTURE ON "REACTIVE DISTILLATION AND IT'S INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION"., KPR Institute Engineering and Technology, Autonomous Engineering Institution, Coimbatore, India

Reactive distillation is a process where the chemical reactor is also the still. Separation of the product from the reaction mixture does not need a separate distillation step which saves energy (for heating) and materials. This technique can be useful for equilibrium-limited reactions such as esterification and ester hydrolysis reactions. Conversion can be increased beyond what is expected by the equilibrium due to the continuous removal of reaction products from the reactive zone. This approach can also reduce capital and investment costs.
The conditions in the reactive column are suboptimal both as a chemical reactor and as a distillation column, since the reactive column combines these. The introduction of an in-situ separation process in the reaction zone or vice versa leads to complex interactions between vapor–liquid equilibrium, mass transfer rates, diffusion and chemical kinetics, which poses a great challenge for design and synthesis of these systems. Side reactors, where a separate column feeds a reactor and vice versa, are better for some reactions, if the optimal conditions of distillation and reaction differ too much.
Department of Chemical Engineering at KPR Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore has organized a guest lecture on “Reactive distillation and it’s industrial application” on 10.08.2022, 15.00 PM - 16.00 PM through online mode. Dr. Swapnil Adsul, Assistant Professor, P.P. Savani university, Surat (Gujarat), was the speaker of the invited talk. There were around 100+ participants including faculty members and students. The session was very interesting and interactive. Mr. Antony Roshan has given the welcome address and brief introduction and Ms. Kavika of third year has proposed a vote of thanks.