Feasibility of Reactive Chromatography for the Synthesis of n-Propyl Acetate

Abstract

The integration of chemical reaction and chromatographic separation in a single unit is known as reactive chromatography (RC). RC may be beneficial for processes that involve mixtures, which are otherwise difficult to separate by conventional distillation due to nonideality in the phase equilibrium, formation of azeotropes, etc. In this work, synthesis of n-propyl acetate from n-propanol and acetic acid using Amberlyst-15 as a catalyst/adsorbent in a fixed bed chromatographic reactor (FBCR) is investigated. The parameters in the rate model, adsorption isotherm, and dispersion model are estimated using experimental data. The reactive separation experiments are performed in a FBCR setup and the results are compared with model predictions. The breakthrough profiles of FBCR indicate that the synthesis of n-propyl acetate using RC may be advantageous compared to conventional reactors.