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Abstract

The esterification reaction of acetic acid with n-butanol in a continuous catalytic distillation system has been studied. The products of esterification reactions viz, water and butyl acetates are separated by distillation during the course of the reaction, to overcome the equilibrium limitations. A 3-m-tall column with reactive and nonreactive zones, packed with a commercial catalytic packing (KATAPAK-S) and noncatalytic wire gauze packing, was used for this purpose. For a feed concentration corresponding to that obtained in a one-stage continuously stirred tank reactor at reaction equilibrium, conversion of ~100% was realized, with selectivity on the order of 99%. Interestingly, in most of the experiments, the bottom stream contained butyl acetate that was almost free of acetic acid. The influence of various operating parameters, such as feed flow rate, feed composition, feed location, and boil-up rate, on the conversion, selectivity, and separation was studied. A dynamic equilibrium stage model was developed and solved to predict the transient and steady-state results. Reasonably good agreement between the experimental and simulation results was realized. © 2005 American Chemical Society. [accessed 2014 January 9th]