Reactive Distillation for Producing n-Butyl Acetate:Experiment and Simulation

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper, a reactive distillation (RD) column was applied for synthesis n-butyl acetate from n-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 process. The results obtained from the equilibrium stage model agreed well with the experiments. The effects of operating variables on the n-butanol conversion and n-butyl acetate purity were further investigated. The optimal column configuration for the production of n-butyl acetate was designed with 5 rectifying stages, 8 reaction stages and 13 stripping stages by the simulation study. According to the simulation results, n-butanol conversion and n-butyl acetate purity all reached greater than 96%.

Key words: reactive distillation, esterification, n-butyl acetate, simulation

摘要： In this paper, a reactive distillation (RD) column was applied for synthesis n-butyl acetate from n-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 process. The results obtained from the equilibrium stage model agreed well with the experiments. The effects of operating variables on the n-butanol conversion and n-butyl acetate purity were further investigated. The optimal column configuration for the production of n-butyl acetate was designed with 5 rectifying stages, 8 reaction stages and 13 stripping stages by the simulation study. According to the simulation results, n-butanol conversion and n-butyl acetate purity all reached greater than 96%.

关键词: reactive distillation, esterification, n-butyl acetate, simulation

TIAN Hui, HUANG Zhixian, QIU Ting, WANG Xiaoda, WU Yanxiang. Reactive Distillation for Producing n-Butyl Acetate:Experiment and Simulation[J]. Chin.J.Chem.Eng., 2012, 20(5): 980-987.

田晖, 黄智贤, 邱挺, 王晓达, 吴燕翔. Reactive Distillation for Producing n-Butyl Acetate:Experiment and Simulation[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2012, 20(5): 980-987.

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