Conceptual Design of a Butyl-levulinate Reactive Distillation Process by Incremental Refinement

Abstract

Abstract: Butyl-levulinate has been identified as a promising fuel candidate with high oxygen content. Its combustion in diesel engines yields very low soot and NO_x emissions. It can be produced by the esterification of butanol and levulinic acid, which themselves are platform chemicals in a biorenewables-based chemical supply chain. Since the equilibrium of esterification limits the conversion in a conventional reactor, reactive distillation can be applied to overcome this limitation. The presence of the high-boiling catalyst sulfuric acid requires a further separation step downstream of the reactive distillation column to recover the catalyst for recycle. Optimal design specifications and an optimal operating point are determined using rigorous flowsheet optimization. The challenging optimization problem is solved by a favorable initialization strategy and continuous reformulation. The design identified has the potential to produce a renewable transportation fuel at reasonable cost.

Key words: biofuels, conceptual design, reactive distillation, butyl-levulinate, mixed-integer nonlinear problems, continuous reformulation, process optimization, process intensification

摘要： Butyl-levulinate has been identified as a promising fuel candidate with high oxygen content. Its combustion in diesel engines yields very low soot and NO_x emissions. It can be produced by the esterification of butanol and levulinic acid, which themselves are platform chemicals in a biorenewables-based chemical supply chain. Since the equilibrium of esterification limits the conversion in a conventional reactor, reactive distillation can be applied to overcome this limitation. The presence of the high-boiling catalyst sulfuric acid requires a further separation step downstream of the reactive distillation column to recover the catalyst for recycle. Optimal design specifications and an optimal operating point are determined using rigorous flowsheet optimization. The challenging optimization problem is solved by a favorable initialization strategy and continuous reformulation. The design identified has the potential to produce a renewable transportation fuel at reasonable cost.

关键词: biofuels, conceptual design, reactive distillation, butyl-levulinate, mixed-integer nonlinear problems, continuous reformulation, process optimization, process intensification

Andreas Harwardt, Korbinian Kraemer, Bettina Rüngeler, Wolfgang Marquardt. Conceptual Design of a Butyl-levulinate Reactive Distillation Process by Incremental Refinement[J]. , 2011, 19(3): 371-379.

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