Entrainer assisted production of high purity 2-phenyl ethyl acetate by reactive distillation

Abstract

Reactive distillation (RD) is a promising alternative for the processes involving reversible reactions. In this work, we examine its potential for the esterification of a heavy alcohol (2-phenyl ethyl alcohol) with acetic acid in the presence of an ion exchange resin (Amberlyst-15) as the catalyst. The proposed RD process facilitates separation of the desired product, 2-phenyl ethyl acetate, in the pure form and provides a cost-effective and compact alternative to the conventional batch process. We determine the feasibility of this approach by conducting experiments in a laboratory-scale hybrid reactive distillation column having structured packings filled with Amberlyst-15. The experimental results are compared with the predicted values from an equilibrium-staged RD model. The model uses reaction kinetics developed in our earlier studies and the vapor–liquid equilibrium model is based on the experimental data generated in the present work and data available in literature. The experimentally validated model is further used to identify the best possible operating and design parameters to achieve high purity, high conversion and longer catalyst life. All in all, entrainer-based reactive distillation was found to be feasible in this case. The methodology followed here can be easily extended to similar reactions of heavy alcohols with lower carboxylic acids like acetic acid.