Methyl-Ethyl Ketone (MEK) is a promising bulk chemical and can be produced in a biochemical route from biomass. Within this route, two azeotropes are formed because of the intermolecular interactions; thus, the purification of that mixture is difficult. In this study, a work of synthesis, design, and multi-objective optimization was carried out to generate sustainable alternatives to purify MEK, starting from a promising alternative previously reported. Those alternatives are hybrid processes that combine the advantages of using a liquid-liquid extraction column for handling the azeotropes aforementioned. All alternatives were modeled in Aspen Plus and were optimized using a hybrid stochastic optimization algorithm. As a result, interesting trends among objectives and design variables were found. Additionally, the thermally coupled alternative was shown as a promissory alternative with savings of 11%, 12% for the economic and environmental impact. Also, it showed improvements in controllability and no real penalty regarding safety issues in comparison with a case base.

甲基乙基酮 (MEK) 是一种很有前途的大宗化学品，可以通过生物质的生化途径生产。在这条路线中，由于分子间相互作用，形成了两种共沸物；因此，该混合物的纯化很困难。在这项研究中，从先前报道的有希望的替代方案开始，进行了合成、设计和多目标优化的工作，以产生可持续的替代方案来纯化 MEK。这些替代方案是混合工艺，结合了使用液-液萃取塔处理上述共沸物的优点。所有替代方案均在 Aspen Plus 中建模，并使用混合随机优化算法进行优化。结果，发现了目标和设计变量之间的有趣趋势。此外，热耦合替代方案被证明是一种承诺替代方案，可节省 11% 和 12% 的经济和环境影响。此外，与案例库相比，它显示了可控性的改进，并且在安全问题方面没有真正的惩罚。