A novel design of reactive distillation configuration for 2-methoxy-2-methylheptane process

The study aims to reveal the possibility of reactive distillation (RD) in the 2-methoxy-2-methylheptane (MMH) production process. MMH is getting more industrial and academic interests as a gasoline additive to replace methyl tert-butyl ether. Traditionally, MMH is obtained by carrying out the reaction in the reactor followed by three distillation columns. The high yield of MMH could be achieved by keeping the large reactor size or by using the large excess of 2-methyl-1-heptene (MH). Both former and latter strategies are associated with the high capital and operating costs. To solve these problems, this study proposed an innovative RD configuration to take synergistic benefits of reaction and separation involved. This innovative RD configuration allows the production of MMH with significantly lower capital, operating and total annual costs. For desired MMH yield, the result demonstrates that the proposed RD configuration can reduce energy, capital, and total annual costs up to 7.7, 31.3, and 17.1%, respectively, compared to a conventional process. Furthermore, the influence of some important design parameters on the RD column performance was also explored to overcome the temperature limitation of acid resin catalyst inside the reactive zone of the RD column