SIMULATION OF ETHYL ACETATE PLANT WITH PREREACTOR AND REACTIVE FINISHING COLUMN

Abstract

Reactive distillation is a hybrid process that combines separation and reaction into a single unit to significantly increase the reactant conversion and reduce energy consumption, and capital cost. Reactive distillation has been successfully commercialized for the production of ethyl acetate and other chemicals. However, reactive distillation is very challenging task because in it both reaction and separation take place. The main purpose of this research project is to develop steady-state models, to validate these models with plant data. Rate-based models were developed for steady-state simulations of reactive distillation column and a prereactor are used. In reactor a substantial part of the reaction take places and remaining part in the reaction section of reactive distillation column are take places. Simulations of conventional distillation and reactive distillation for ethyl acetate systems were carried out to verify the above relationship. In the present work, a reactive distillation column for the production of ethyl acetate is simulated using Aspen Plus. Rate-based models were validated with plant/experimental data for ethyl acetate system, and good agreement was found between the plant data and the simulation results.