Simulation of ethyl acetate synthesis via reactive distillation

Abstract

Ethyl acetate (EtAc) is mainly used as solvent in paints, adhesives and coatings, eliminating the use of aromatic compounds. Reactive distillation is a type of process intensification in which the separation and reaction is combined in one vessel. In this work, reactive distillation (RD) process for EtAc was implemented using process simulator Aspen HYSYS by applying the data obtained from the bibliography. A sensitive analysis was performed to determine the effects of key design and operating variables on column performance and, subsequently, an optimal column configuration was obtained