SIMULATION OF REACTIVE DISTILLATION COLUMN FOR ESTERIFICATION OF ACETIC ACID WITH METHANOL

Abstract

Reactive distillation is a hybrid process that combines reaction and distillation into a single unit to significantly reduce capital cost and energy consumption, and to increase the reactant conversion. Reactive distillation has been successfully commercialized for the production of methyl acetate and other chemicals. However, the strong interaction between reaction and distillation makes modeling and control of reactive distillation a very challenging task. The main purpose of this research project is to develop steady-state models, to validate these models with experimental data. Both the equilibrium and rate-based models were developed for steady-state simulations of reactive distillation. An intrinsic relationship between the equilibrium model . and the rate-based model was found, proving mathematically that the equilibrium model is a special case of the rate-based model. Simulations of conventional distillation and reactive distillation for methyl acetate systems were carried out to verify the above relationship. Both the equilibrium and rate-based models were validated with experimental data for the methyl acetate system, and good agreement was found between the experimental data and the simulation results.