Energy Study of Reactive-HIDiC Simulation for Ethyl Acetate Synthesis from Acetic Acid

Abstract

In this paper the concept of Heat Integrated Distillation Column (HIDiC) and Reactive Distillation (RD) were used to study the ethyl acetate process by the simulation in Aspen Plus. The intensification concept of reactive-HIDiC was developed applying simulation concepts for the representation of the heat transfer phenomenology. An analysis of binary mixtures involved in the process was developed to determine the thermodynamic model. The thermodynamic properties were calculated with the NRTL-RK (Non-random two- liquids modified by Redlich-kwong) model to estimate the properties. The energy consumption was studied in a reactive distillation column and the intensified configuration r-HIDiC. The parameters of simulation and column configuration were established in order to compare the two configurations. The results showed the amount of energy consumed between the reactive distillation column and r-HIDiC column and compared to determine the energy savings. With the r-HIDiC column presented a decrease of energy consumption and increased concentration of valuable product on the top of column of the 7.8% compared to the reactive distillation column.