Abstract

Propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA) is a commonly used solvent in the rapidly developing semiconductor industry. Ultra-high purity PGMEA is required for this ultra-precision industry and to satisfy the current strict waste management regulations. The traditional PGMEA production process consumes considerable energy and has a high production cost. In this study, a novel heat integrated and intensified design, which applies a dividing wall column, reactive distillation, and pressure swing techniques, was proposed for improving the energy efficiency and reducing the cost of PGMEA production. Heat integration was applied to maximize the heat recovery of the process. All processes were simulated using the commercial simulator Aspen Plus V11. The economic and environmental parameters of the process alternative were assessed for a fair comparison with the conventional process. The results showed that heat integration of the optimal pressure swing-based reactive distillation and dividing wall column processes could reduce the energy requirement and TAC by 29.5%, and 20.8%, respectively, compared to that of the optimal conventional process. The improved design provides a strong basis for achieving more sustainable PGMEA production.

Highlights

  • Propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA) is a substantial and multipurpose solvent with a wide range of industrial applications

  • PGMEA is traditionally produced by the esterification of propylene glycol monomethyl ether (PGME) with acetic acid (AA) using a batch reactor [5]

  • propylene oxide (PO) was reacted with MeOH in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) under heterogeneous base catalysis to produce PGME

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Summary

Introduction

Propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA) is a substantial and multipurpose solvent with a wide range of industrial applications. PGMEA is traditionally produced by the esterification of propylene glycol monomethyl ether (PGME) with acetic acid (AA) using a batch reactor [5]. This process affords low PGME conversion owing to chemical equilibrium limitations. An additional entrainer is required to accomplish a higher rate of reactant conversion by overcoming the homogenous azeotrope between PGME and Energies 2021, 14, 7416 in RD column has two major drawbacks. An additional entrainer is required to accomplish a higher rate of reactant conversion by overcoming the homogenous azeotrope between and water [6]. Theby reaction by acidic catalyst might water [6].PGME

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