Feasibility evaluation of reactive distillation process for the production of fuel ethanol from methyl acetate hydrotreating

Publication date: Available online 29 March 2019Source: Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process IntensificationAuthor(s): Xin Gao, Shibin Tu, Xingang Li, Hong LiAbstractIn order to seeking further intensification of hydrogenation process during the synthesis of fuel ethanol from methyl acetate (MA), an alternative reactive distillation (RD) with heat integration has been proposed to execute this production. In this paper we develop a mathematical model to describe the behavior and performance of a hydrotreating reactive distillation by considering the amounts of side products and the heat integration. The effect of adaptation between hydrogenation reaction and products separation on the intensification performance also has been analyzed. Through the comparison of RD and traditional hydrogenation process, it is clearly demonstrated that a substantial reduction of total annual cost (˜41.10%) can be achieved with the consideration of further heat integration. In addition, the model results also show that the molar ratio of hydrogen to MA could be significantly reduced when the hydrotreating RD process is operated in suitable adaptation between reaction and separation. The suggested hydrotreating reactive distillation process allows producing the fuel ethanol from MA in an inherently safe and energetically advantageous way without incurring significant amounts of side products.

Source: Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification - March 30, 2019 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research