Circumventing an azeotrope is reactive distillation

Using a McCabe-Thiele diagram, we explain nonintuitive behavior in a binary reactive distillation column where we react and separate two isomers displaying a maximum boiling azeotrope. Placing sufficient reaction on only two trays in the top section of the column, we shift the top operating line to Lie below the 45 degrees line. On lower nonreacting trays, we then easily step past the azeotrope. Once past the azeotrope, we even find that the column temperature decreases as we step down the column.