Simulation and optimization of reactive distillation for the production of ethyl acetate using [BMIM]HSO4 as catalyst

Experimental and simulation studies of a continuous reactive distillation for an esterification process

Esterification of acetic acid and methanol to produce methyl acetate and water has been studied in a continuous packed bed catalytic reactive distillation column. Indion 180, an ion-exchange resin solid catalyst has loaded in an equivalent Katapak-S into the reactive section of the column. The experiments were conducted under different operating conditions of reboiler temperature, total feed flow rate of the reactants, methanol to acetic acid mole ratio, feed location of acetic acid and methanol with respect to reactive section, reflux ratio and catalyst amount to investigate the composition of distillate and reboiler respectively. The maximum methyl acetate composition and acetic acid conversion is obtained at reboiler temperature of 80 °C, reflux ratio of 2, total feed flow rate of 16.3 g/min, catalyst loading of 60 g and mole ratio of methanol to acetic acid is 1. From the experimental investigations, it is found that the composition of the methyl acetate in the distillate is 95% by mole at an optimized experimental condition. The experimental data has been compared with equilibrium and non-equilibrium model predictions and found that non-equilibrium model is able to predict the experimental data reasonably good. The calculated error from equilibrium model relative to experimental data is 4.71% and rate based model relative to experimental data is 0.61%. It is observed that the error is less in rate based model compared to equilibrium model.

Intensifying strategy of ionic liquids for Pd-based catalysts in anthraquinone hydrogenation

Pd–IL complex catalyst was first employed in anthraquinone hydrogenation. ILs are uniformly dispersed around Pd species, which adjust acidic sites, accomplish charge transfers, stretch CO bond lengths and promote occurrence of desirable reactions.