Reactive dividing-wall column for the co-production of ethyl acetate and n-butyl acetate

Reactive dividing-wall column (RDWC) technology plays a critical role in the energy saving and high efficiency of chemical process. In this article, the process of co-producing ethyl acetate (EA) and n-butyl acetate (BA) with RDWC was studied. BA was not only the product, but also acted as entrainer to remove the water generated by the two esterification reactions. Experiments and simulations of the co-production process were carried out. It was found that the experimental results were in good agreement with the simulation results. Two kinds of RDWC structures (RDWC-FC and RDWC-RS) were proposed, and the co-production process operating parameters of the two types of RDWC were optimized by Aspen Plus respectively. The optimal operating parameters of the RDWC-FC were determined as follows: 0.6 of the reflux ratio of aqueous phase (RR), 0.66 of the vapor split (RV) and 0.51 of the liquid split (RL). And the optimal operating parameters of the RDWC-RS were shown as follows: RR was 0.295 and RV was 0.61. Furthermore, the energy saving analysis of the co-production process was based on the annual output of 10000 tons of EA, compared with the traditional reaction distillation (RD) to prepare EA and BA, the reboiler duty of the RDWC-FC column could save 20.4%, TAC saving 23.6%; RDWC-RS reboiler energy consumption could save 17.0%, TAC 22.2%.