Abstract
Reactive distillation (RD) is the integration of reaction and thermal separation in one piece of equipment. Structured catalytic packings have been developed for this application, but their simulation and design are often limited to manufacturer software. Studies in the literature that rely on process simulation using Aspen Plus typically assume that the RD equipment has trays partially filled with catalyst, and do not take into consideration the pressure drop across the column. This simplification, in turn, affects the temperature profile and the reaction kinetics of the column, which might lead to simulation results that would be unfeasible, due to catalyst degradation. In this work, a custom model was developed for hydrodynamic modeling of the Katapak-S packing in Aspen Plus. The model was validated using literature data on pressure drop and holdup for the water-air system and the esterification of lactic acid with ethanol over Amberlyst-15, showing a good fit between the literature data and the model results. Therefore, the model offers a more representative description of RD columns and serves as a tool for the holdup, pressure drop, and diameter sizing in Aspen Plus simulations.
Published Version
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