The Effect of Feed Location of a Semi-Batch Reactive Distillation via Esterification Reaction of Acetic Acid and Methanol: Simulation Study

Abstract

This paper studied the effect of feed location of semi-batch reactive distillation via esterification reaction of acetic acid and methanol producing methyl acetate using Aspen Batch Distillation model. The reactive distillation model used was developed following a design of an in-house made reactive distillation column, which comprised of seven stages: five possible feed stages, where solid catalyst for the reaction was contained, a reboiler and a condenser. The main objectives of this semi-batch reactive distillation operation were to obtain a high yield of methyl acetate product with 95wt% purity. In the operation, methanol was charged to the reboiler and acetic acid was fed to the column continuously at five different feed stages. From the simulation results, it showed that the feed location of acetic acid affecting on the yield and the purity of the main product at the top stage of the column. It was found that the optimum feed stage of acetic acid was at stage four giving the maximum yield and purity of methyl acetate at 74.74% by mole and 97.36wt%, respectively.