TY - JOUR N2 - Reactive distillation (RD) has already demonstrated its potential to significantly increase reactant conversion and the purity of the target product. Our work focuses on the application of RD to reaction systems that feature more than one main reaction. In such multiple-reaction systems, the application of RD would enhance not only the reactant conversion but also the selectivity of the target product. The potential of RD to improve the product selectivity of multiple-reaction systems has not yet been fully exploited because of a shortage of available comprehensive experimental and theoretical studies. In the present article, we want to theoretically identify the full potential of RD technology in multiple-reaction systems by performing a detailed optimisation study. An evolutionary algorithm was applied and the obtained results were compared with those of a conventional stirred tank reactor to quantify the potential of RD to improve the target product selectivity of multiple-reaction systems. The consecutive transesterification of dimethyl carbonate with ethanol to form ethyl methyl carbonate and diethyl carbonate was used as a case study. L1 - http://journals.pan.pl/Content/84814/PDF/02-paper-Keller.pdf L2 - http://journals.pan.pl/Content/84814 PY - 2013 IS - No 1 March EP - 38 DO - 10.2478/cpe-2013-0003 KW - nonequilibrium-stage model KW - Pareto-front KW - multi-objective optimisation KW - diethyl carbonate KW - ethyl methyl carbonate A1 - Keller, Tobias A1 - Dreisewerd, Bjoern A1 - Górak, Andrzej PB - Polish Academy of Sciences Committee of Chemical and Process Engineering DA - 2013 T1 - Reactive Distillation for Multiple-Reaction Systems: Optimisation Study Using an Evolutionary Algorithm SP - 17 UR - http://journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/84814 T2 - Chemical and Process Engineering ER -