Production of n-Butyl Acetate through Continuous Reactive Distillation Using PTSA–POM as the Catalyst: Lab-Scale Experiments, Modeling and Validation, Commercial-Scale Design, and Economic Evaluation

Experiments are conducted in a lab-scale continuous reactive distillation column (CRDC) for the esterification of acetic acid with n-butanol to produce n-butyl acetate using a poly(o-methylene p-toluene sulfonic acid) (PTSA–POM) catalyst. A steady-state Aspen model is developed and validated using experimental data. Optimal design, using this model for data generation, to maximize conversion and purity yielded 93.4% conversion and 94.66% purity and 95.75% conversion and 95.01% purity using response surface methodology and Aspen-based optimization, respectively. The latter result is experimentally validated to yield a conversion of 94.2%, with an n-butyl acetate purity of 96.44%. Further, for the commercial-scale production of n-butyl acetate, a CRDC is designed in an energy and cost-effective manner through steady-state simulations. The proposed CRDC with PTSA–POM reduced the reboiler duty by 62.14 and 32.19% and the total annual cost by 30.51 and 36.85% compared to CRDC using Amberlyst-15 and an ionic liquid as catalysts, respectively.