Consider reactive separations

Reactive separation (RS) is the combination of a chemical (catalytic) reaction and a separation technique. For reactive distillation (RD), the reaction is combined with distillation. Rapid development of RS is the result of growing environmental demands and increasing energy costs. Several processes are performed using RD, such as esterification, etherification (fuel antiknocks), and hydrodesulphurisation. Other RS techniques also develop rapidly. However, the success has not come without some serious problems. The heterogeneous proton catalysts still do not meet the requirements of many processes. The column internals with a built-in catalyst are rather sparse and expensive and their characteristics are not studied well enough. Therefore intensive studies are still being performed. This study presents a brief summary of the processes realisable with the usage of reactive distillation, catalysts, and column internals. Some interesting research results and application examples are also quoted.