首页|Microchannel reactive distillation for the conversion of aqueous ethanol to ethylene
Microchannel reactive distillation for the conversion of aqueous ethanol to ethylene
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Here we demonstrate the proof-of-concept for microchannel reactive distillation for alcohol-to-jet appli-cation:combining ethanol/water separation and ethanol dehydration in one unit operation.Ethanol is first distilled into the vapor phase,converted to ethylene and water,and then the water co-product is condensed to shift the reaction equilibrium.Process intensification is achieved through rapid mass trans-fer-ethanol stripping from thin wicks using novel microchannel architectures-leading to lower resi-dence time and improved separation efficiency.Energy savings are realized with integration of unit operations.For example,heat of condensing water can offset vaporizing ethanol.Furthermore,the dehy-dration reaction equilibrium shifts towards completion by immediate removal of the water byproduct upon formation while maintaining aqueous feedstock in the condensed phase.For aqueous ethanol feed-stock(40％w),71％ethanol conversion with 91％selectivity to ethylene was demonstrated at 220 ℃,600 psig,and 0.28 h-1 wt hour space velocity.2.7 stages of separation were also demonstrated,under these conditions,using a device length of 8.3 cm.This provides a height equivalent of a theoretical plate(HETP),a measure of separation efficiency,of～3.3 cm.By comparison,conventional distillation packing provides an HETP of～30 cm.Thus,9.1 x reduction in HETP was demonstrated over conventional technology,pro-viding a means for significant energy savings and an example of process intensification.Finally,prelim-inary process economic analysis indicates that by using microchannel reactive distillation technology,the operating and capital costs for the ethanol separation and dehydration portion of an envisioned alcohol-to-jet process could be reduced by at least 35％and 55％,respectively,relative to the incumbent technol-ogy,provided future improvements to microchannel reactive distillation design and operability are made.
Catalytic distillationEthanol dehydrationProcess intensificationMicrochannelAlcohol-to-jet process
NETL
NSTL
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