Mastering the Reaction Is the Key to Successful Design of Heterogeneously Catalyzed Reactive Distillation: A Comprehensive Case Study of Hexyl Acetate Synthesis

Abstract

This work condenses the results of extensive experimental and modeling and simulation work on heterogeneously catalyzed reactive distillation and relates them to basic questions that must be answered in designing that complex integrated process. As a test case, hexyl acetate synthesis was chosen. The results summarized and evaluated here make it one of the most thoroughly and comprehensively studied examples of reactive distillation processes in the literature. In well-documented reactive distillation experiments, carried out in two scales, all relevant process parameters were studied. Modeling and simulation of the reactive distillation process, carried out both with the equilibrium stage and with the rate-based approach, are based on careful experimental and modeling work on the underlying vapor−liquid and liquid−liquid equilibria and the reaction equilibrium and kinetics. It is shown that the separation side of the process can be well described with conventional methods and that the equilibrium stage c...