The conceptual design of reactive distillation processes is investigated in this PhD thesis. The motivation for this research came from taking a sustainable life-span perspective on conceptual design, in which economics and potential losses over the process life span were taken into consideration. The technological and scientific scenarios used in this research are described in this chapter. First, the drivers for change in the current dynamic environment of chemical processing industry are identified.
Then the reactive distillation processing is introduced. The generalities of this process together with its technical challenges in design and operation are addressed. The scientific setting of conceptual design in process systems engineering, with an emphasis
on the key challenges in the design of reactive distillation is addressed. The scope of this thesis is then introduced, together with a statement of the scientific questions dealt with in the thesis. The chapter is concluded with a thesis outline and a concise
description of the scientific novelty of this research.