Process Intensification

Conceptual methods for synthesis of reactive distillation processes: recent developments and perspectives

“…20,21 The history of the Eastman case has been investigated in some detail by Harmsen and Verkerk. 22 They showed that academic research on process synthesis by Jeff Siirola and academic teaching of Eastman process engineers played an important role in the development of the Eastman design, which is not a simple RD but an extractive RD column of 4 m diameter and 80 m height, in which seven complex sections are combined. Gas streams flowing upwards and liquid streams flowing downward play an active role in this integration.…”

“…After that teaching, the engineers were able to solve the design problem. 22 The remarkable thing is that Siirola, together with others from the university had written a textbook on process synthesis, 23 but he considered it insufficient as an educational resource. He probably thought that a stronger interaction between academics and industrial engineers was needed.…”

“…In textbooks on conceptual process design, unit operation selection in several steps is briefly mentioned by Harmsen et al 29 and Harmsen and Verkerk. 22 Other textbooks on (plant-wide) process design, notably Smith 30 and Seider et al, 31 do not cover RD. The PI textbook on design, by Reay et al 32 does not cover RD.…”

“…Conceptual process design textbooks, such as Douglas, 49 Seider et al 31 and Harmsen et al, 29 contain examples of these criteria. More recently, this set has been extended with contributing to Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, 50 by Harmsen and Verkerk 22 and Fernandez-Rivas et al 45,46 For RD, these categories can be used directly. Almeida-Rivera et al, 39 provides evaluation criteria that includes technical feasibility, economic viability, controllability, safety and sustainability.…”

“…What happened is that Siirola sent some process engineers back to the university (where he did his PhD on process synthesis in 1971), to receive teaching on process synthesis based on functions. After that teaching, the engineers were able to solve the design problem 22 . The remarkable thing is that Siirola, together with others from the university had written a textbook on process synthesis, 23 but he considered it insufficient as an educational resource.…”