Catalytic reactive distillation process development for 1,1 diethoxy butane production from renewable sources

Some acetals can be produced from renewable resources (bioalcohols) and seem to be good candidates for different applications such as oxygenated diesel additives. In the present case the production of 1,1 diethoxy butane from bioethanol and butanal is presented. Butanal can be obtained from biobutanol following a partial oxidation or a dehydrogenation process. In this paper innovative process development about the synthesis of the mentioned acetal including catalytic reactive distillation experimental and simulation results will be presented and discussed. Katapak SP modules containing Amberlyst 47 resin were used as structured catalytic packings. This reactive system allowed reaching higher conversions than the equilibrium ones at the same temperatures. All the experimental data gathered allowed to tune a simulation model for the reactive distillation operation which showed a fairly good behavior in order to perform initial 1,1 diethoxy butane production process design studies.