Abstract: In this paper, a reactive distillation (RD) column was applied for synthesis butyl acetate from butanol and acetic acid. The Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson (LHHW) kinetic model and an equilibrium stage model for separation were employed to study the RD. The results obtained from the equilibrium stage model agreed well with the experiments. The effects of operating variables on the butanol conversion and butyl acetate purity were further investigated in this paper. The optimal column configuration for the production of butyl acetate was designed with 5 rectifying stages, 8 reaction stages and 13 stripping stages by the simulation study. According to the simulation results, the RD column was changed as 5 rectifying stages, 8 reaction stages and 13 stripping stages based on the experimental setup. BuOH conversion and BuAc purity were all greater than 96% at this condition.

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