This study presents a strategy for the internal heat integration of reactive distillation (RD) columns for concurrently producing 2-ethylhexyl dodecanoate and methyl dodecanoate. Because of a significant temperature difference in the two reactions, the two RD column process with each single reaction occurring in the respective column has lower energy consumption than the direct sequence consisting of one RD column followed by a non-RD column. Thus, internal heat integration in a partial double annular configuration is introduced on the basis of the two RD column process. In the new annular RD configuration, heat is transferred from the outer column shell having a high-temperature exothermic reaction to the inner shell with a low-temperature endothermic reaction. By using the concept of pinch temperature, we determine the heat transfer stages to secure sufficient temperature driving force. For the same product purity and reaction extent, the internal heat integrated distillation column (HIDiC) shows lower internal flow-rate and energy consumption than the other sequences of the direct sequence and the reactive dividing wall column (RDWC). The total utility consumption of the HIDiC with a partial double annular structure was reduced by 15.4% and 14.4% compared to the direct sequence and the RDWC, respectively.

本研究提出了一种用于同时生产 2-乙基己基十二烷酸酯和十二烷酸甲酯的反应精馏 (RD) 柱的内部热集成策略。由于两个反应之间存在显着的温度差异，因此在各自的塔中发生每个单一反应的两个 RD 塔工艺比由一个 RD 塔和一个非 RD 塔组成的直接顺序具有更低的能耗。因此，在两个RD柱工艺的基础上，引入了部分双环结构的内热集成。在新的环形 RD 配置中，热量从具有高温放热反应的外塔壳传递到具有低温吸热反应的内壳。通过使用夹点温度的概念，我们确定传热阶段以确保足够的温度驱动力。对于相同的产品纯度和反应程度，内部热集成蒸馏塔（HIDiC）的内部流量和能耗低于直接序列和反应性分隔壁塔（RDWC）的其他序列。与直接顺序和RDWC相比，具有部分双环形结构的HIDiC的总效用分别降低了15.4%和14.4%。