Abstract
Owing to the strict environmental policies which has banned the use of methyl-tert-butyl-ether (MTBE), a novel gasoline additive 2-methoxy-2-methylheptane (MMH) that possess higher molecular weight and low solubility in water was proposed. Based on process intensification (PI) principles, the conventional process of MMH was examined for reactive distillation (RD) configuration. The optimal design of reactive distillation configuration for 99 % MMH yield was proposed and compared with the conventional reactor-separation-recycle configuration. For desired MMH yield, process intensification using RD brings significant savings in energy, and total annual costs by up to 14.85, and 8.71 %, respectively, in comparison with the conventional energy intensive scheme.
