Abstract
Ethyl acetate (EtAc) is normally produced via the liquid-phase reversible reaction of acetic acid (HAc) with ethanol (EtOH) in the presence of acid catalyst, para-toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA). In the reactive distillation (RD) units, ethanol and acetic acid is partially reacted in a prereactor, and the rest of the reaction continues in the RD column to a greater extent due to removal of products (EtAc and water) from the liquid phase, leading to elimination of the backward reaction. Due to the importance of the RD in esterification reaction, concerted investigations by many workers on widely different topics such as thermodynamic, reaction kinetics, and simulation pertaining to RD have been carried out. However, most of the information/analysis is based on laboratory scale and pilot plant scale data. No data/studies are available in open literature based on large scale plants. Due to this, present work is aimed at obtaining detailed sampling and analysis of process parameters using an industrial RD unit of 60 TPD capacity of IOLCP situated at Barnala, Punjab, India, who very kindly allowed us to use and publish relevant data.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
