Study of performance of packed bed reactive distillation column for the esterification process

Abstract

In this effort, the batch reactive distillation performance was studied by the production of butyl acetate in a batch packed bed reactive distillation column. Esterification of butan-1-ol with acetic acid to produce butyl acetate and water with homogenous hydrochloric acid as a catalyst was considered. This system was chosen because the reaction is reversible and the boiling point of reactants and products are different. The reaction was carried out with and without a distillation column and shows that the reactive distillation is more efficient from the conventional process (reactor and then separation). The concentration of butyl acetate increases from 12.38% to 31.74% at the best condition of feed mole ratio of 2.