THEORETICAL STUDY ON THE PRODUCTION OF ISOPROPYL ACETATE IN MEMBRANE REACTOR

Abstract

In the field of chemical engineering, separation and purification of physical and chemical mixtures has been one of the major concerns. From the beginning of industrial development, large scale separations involving distillation, adsorption, filtration etc. have been introduced as unit operation processes. For all reversible reactions it is difficult to attain high conversion due to equilibrium limitation. Presently membrane reactors are used to overcome the equilibrium restrictions for liquid phase reversible reactions. Membrane reactor is a chemical reactor in which membrane is uses as a separator. Membrane reactor is uses in a number of processes like dehydrogenation, hydrogenation, dehydration, reforming and waste water treatment. Membrane is a semi permeable barrier used to partially separate the components in reacting mixture. Esterification is one of the most important chemical processes. From thermodynamic point of view the conversion of esterification reaction is limited by the equilibrium value. To increase the equilibrium conversion of this reaction we use membrane reactor. Reactor used in this case is tubular. Isopropanol and Amberlyst 15 heated to reaction temperature and acetic acid heated separately and sends to tube side o the reactor. The sweep gas is feed in shell side. In order to study the performance of a reactor, it is essential to understand the complex process occurring in the membrane reactor. Thus it is desirable to develop a mathematical model for esterification reaction in a membrane reactor. In the present work a steady state model for isothermal conditions has been developed which incorporates eight ODE's with appropriate constitutive relationships. The model equations are solved by ODE 45 solver in MATLAB 7.5. The experimental operating data are available in literature were selected for the validation of the model. The results are found to be in good agreement. The effect of operating parameters is studied.