n-Butyl Acetate Synthesis via Reactive Distillation: Thermodynamic Aspects, Reaction Kinetics, Pilot-Plant Experiments, and Simulation Studies

The development of a heterogeneously catalyzed reactive distillation process for the production of n-butyl acetate by the esterification of n-butanol with acetic acid is presented. Thermodynamic aspects of the considered system are discussed, and UNIQUAC interaction parameters are given. The reaction was catalyzed heterogeneously by a strongly acidic ion-exchange resin (Amberlyst-15). The reaction kinetics was investigated, and the kinetic constants for a pseudohomogeneous kinetic model are presented. Reactive distillation experiments were performed using the structured catalytic packing Katapak-S. Several operation conditions were varied (reboiler duty, reactant ratio, total feed rate), and two different setups were realized experimentally. The experimental results are presented in comparison with simulation results. An equilibrium stage model is capable of describing the experiments quantitatively. n-Butanol conversions of 98.5% accompanied with n-butyl acetate purities of 96.9% were achieved using an equimolar total column feed. The simulation was used subsequently to determine the influence of important design factors such as feed location, use of a prereactor, and numbers of reactive and nonreactive stages, resulting in an optimized process.