Jorge Armando Cervantes Jáuregui

Silane Production through Reactive Distillation with Intermediate Condensers

Abstract This work shows that it is feasible to obtain a high purity of silane over 99% and almost complete conversion of trichlorosilane to silane and silicon tetrachloride by a typical reactive distillation column. Nevertheless, the normal reactive distillation column possesses the shortage of high refrigeration requirement. By removing heat at temperature higher than that at the condenser it is possible to reduce cooling requirements at the condenser. In this work, a superstructure representation, rigorous simulations, and optimization problems were combined to derive optimal reactive distillation columns which can realize heat integration between stages and utilities. The results showed that the installation of two inter-condensers results in the best option with economic savings.