Reactive distillation process, a representative process intensification technology, has been widely applied in the chemical industry. However, due to the strong interaction between reaction and separation, the extension of reactive distillation technology is restricted by the difficulties in process analysis and design. To overcome this problem, the design and optimization of reactive distillation have been widely studied and illustrated for plenty of reactive mixtures over the past three decades. These design and optimization methods of the reactive distillation process are classified into three categories: graphical, optimization-based, and evolutionary/heuristic methods. The primary objective of this article is to provide an up-to-date review of the existing design and optimization methods. Desired and output information, advantages and limitations of each method are stated, the modification and development for original methodologies are also reviewed. Perspectives on future research on the design and optimization of reactive distillation method are proposed for further research.

反应精馏工艺是一种具有代表性的工艺强化技术，已在化工行业得到广泛应用。但由于反应与分离之间的强相互作用，反应精馏技术的推广受到工艺分析和设计难度的限制。为了克服这个问题，在过去的三十年里，反应蒸馏的设计和优化已经被广泛研究和说明，用于大量反应混合物。这些反应蒸馏过程的设计和优化方法分为三类：图形、优化和进化/启发式方法。本文的主要目的是提供对现有设计和优化方法的最新回顾。所需和输出的信息，阐述了每种方法的优点和局限性，并对原始方法的修改和发展进行了回顾。提出了对反应精馏方法设计和优化的未来研究展望，以供进一步研究。