Modelling and simulation of the production of n- butyl lactate in a reactive distillation column at pilot plant scale

Abstract

Abstract Petrochemical-based solvents are one of the main sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere, which are reported to be carcinogenic under certain conditions. Different alternatives are being studied in order to reduce this problem. Special interest has been placed in lactate esters obtained from long chain alcohols like propyl, n-butyl and amyl alcohols because they are considered as green solvents due to their toxicological and environmental characteristics. These allow their use in many applications, especially as chemical feedstock, dairy-related flavouring, and drugs administration. Although most of the reported methods for lactate esters production include intensification technologies such as reactive distillation. There are not enough reports related to the evaluation of lactate esters production in a reactive distillation column at pilot plant scale, for obtaining a high productivity and a good quality control of the end-product specifications. In this work, a principles-based model, including NRTL-Raoult thermodynamic model and a pseudo-homogeneous kinetic model, was developed for a reactive distillation column at pilot plant scale located at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The system was simulated in Matlab/Simulink R2020b considering the column design. The obtained results were validated with simulations in Aspen Plus V11, with a composition of butyl lactate > 97% mole fraction.