DESIGN, OPTIMIZATION AND RETROFIT OF THE FORMIC ACID PROCESS

Abstract

Formic acid is an important chemical with many applications in the industry. Despite this, formic acid process has not received much attention in the open literature. In this thesis, process design and optimization are performed for the production of high-purity formic acid. In addition, a recently developed methodology for process retrofit is applied, and three retrofit options are investigated. These options include well-known process intensification technologies, namely dividing-wall column, reactive distillation and reactive dividing-wall column. Results show that the reactive dividing-wall column is the most attractive retrofit option, giving savings of 2.9% in total annual cost.