Pervaporation with Reactive Distillation for the Production of Ethyl tert-Butyl Ether

Abstract

The combined process of pervaporation with reactive distillation was studied for the production of ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE) from ethanol (EtOH) and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA). on an ion-exchange catalyst. An apparatus consisting of a stirred batch reactor, a distillation column, and a pervaporation membrane was used to test this technique. The permeation flux and selectivity of water in the membrane were investigated in water-alcohols system. The etherification was performed in the liquid phase by using a batch reactor. The reactive distillation was examined with and without pervaporation at the boiling point of the reactant mixture under atmospheric pressure. When pervaporation was not conducted, two layers formed in the top products because of a higher concentration of water. However, these phenomena were not observed when pervaporation was added. It was revealed that pervapovation might be effective for removing water from the bottom and that a higher fraction of ETBE could be obtained as a top product.