Circumventing an Azeotrope in Reactive Distillation

Using a McCabe−Thiele diagram, we explain nonintuitive behavior in a binary reactive distillation column where we react and separate two isomers displaying a maximum boiling azeotrope. Placing sufficient reaction on only two trays in the top section of the column, we shift the top operating line to lie below the 45° line. On lower nonreacting trays, we then easily step past the azeotrope. Once past the azeotrope, we even find that the column temperature decreases as we step down the column.