Journal of Chemical Engineering & Process Technology
Open Access

Abstract

Dynamic Simulation of Catalyzed Esterification of Methanol and Acetic Acid in Reactive Distillation Column

Duraid F. Ahmed* and Aymen T. Homoud

The reactive distillation is very important unit. The main objective of this research was to improve the controller performance of the reactive distillation unit. The theoretical study was made to represent the production of methyl acetate by the liquid phase reaction of acetic acid and methanol throughout reactive distillation and the simulation study was performed by using Matlab-Simulink. The model estimates the liquid and vapor composition profiles on each tray and in the reboiler and condenser, the temperature of each tray, and the liquid and vapor flow rates on each tray as well as the distillate and bottom flow rates. The validity of the proposed model had been evaluated by the comparison with previous works. An analysis steady state study was performed to study the effect of catalyst amount on each tray, the number of reactive trays effect, acetic acid feed tray location effect, and the effect of the operating pressure of the column.

Published Date: 2023-02-01; Received Date: 2022-10-29