Abstract:
Reactive distillation (RD) is an integrative process which is combine reaction and distillation in a single column. It is possible to be used for esterification of ethyl acetate through ethanol and acetic acid, and esterification of butyl acetate through butanol and acetic acid. Due to several advantages, esterification of ethyl acetate and butyl acetate held in a RD column can be more efficient than conventional reactor. It might be possible for both esterification mentioned to occurred in one single RD column simultaneously in order to achieve better efficiency. Initial step of this study is modeling and model validation thereafter. Simulations performed by change the value of several manipulated variables relating to feed condition and operating condition (process). The changes is done so that can be obtain information which described the effect of the changed variable against the target parameters such as product (ethyl acetate and butyl acetate) purity, ethanol and butanol conversion, and RD reboiler duty. Another simulations were performed by changing feed condition so that the product will become off-spec. Afterwards, the operating conditions is changed and adjusted so as restore target parameters quality. Simulation is executed using Aspen Plus.
