Process intensification from conventional to advanced distillations: Past, present, and future

This perspective paper features the process intensification (PI) application for advanced distillation-based processes. Starting with the historical background of generic PI, we subsequently narrow down the discussion to extractive distillation (ED), reactive distillation (RD), and hybrid reactive-extractive distillation (RED). We categorize the existing PI techniques onto internal and external intensification, where the former does not involve altering the distillation configuration while the latter does. Instead of deliberating the technical aspects, we explicitly highlight the contribution of PI applied to ED, RD, and RED towards societal impact covering energy, economic, environmental, control, and safety perspectives. The future perspectives of PI are discussed in the last section, covering the development of hybrid PI technologies, exploring the energy efficiency of different PI configurations, prioritizing PI beyond energy by considering some other sustainability aspects, and linking PI with the ever-increasing Industry 4.0 applications. (c) 2022 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This paper discusses the application of process intensification (PI) in advanced distillation processes, focusing on extractive distillation (ED), reactive distillation (RD), and hybrid reactive-extractive distillation (RED). It highlights the contribution of PI in terms of energy, economic, environmental, control, and safety aspects, and explores future directions for PI, including the development of hybrid PI technologies and the integration of PI with Industry 4.0 applications.