Hybrid reactive distillation systems for n-butyl acetate production from dilute acetic acid

The recovery of dilute acetic acid, regarding as a waste stream in many chemical and petrochemical processes, becomes an important issue due to economic and environmental awareness. In this work, a simulation study on the direct utilization of dilute acetic acid to produce n-butyl acetate via esterification with butanol in a reactive distillation is presented by using Aspen Plus. The performance of a hybrid reactive distillation with a pretreatment unit, i.e., a conventional distillation or a pervaporation, is investigated. For a single reactive distillation system, it is found that higher overall energy of the system is required when the concentration of acetic acid is lowered. By considering the enrichment of acetic acid in the reactive distillation column feed from 35 to 65 wt.%, a hybrid pervaporation–reactive distillation requires lower energy than both the conventional distillation–reactive distillation system and the single reactive distillation.