1. INTRODUCTION
Catalytic distillation (CD) is a process where chemical
reactions and distillation occur simultaneously in
a distillation column. For the purposes of this paper,
the term Ôcatalytic distillationÕ will be restricted to the
process with a heterogeneous (solid) catalyst and
the term Ôreactive distillationÕ will be used to describe
the process with a homogeneous catalyst. CD is most
commonly used to react methanol with isobutylene to
form methyl t-butyl ether (MTBE), which is an octane
enhancing oxygenate added to gasoline. One of the
major beneÞts that CD o¤ers MTBE producers is its
ability to increase conversion beyond its equilibrium
limit. For this reason the CD-based process boasts
higher isobutylene conversions than are possible with
conventional Þxed-bed processes (Hutchings et al.,
1992).