Estimation of the Mass-Transfer Efficiency in Catalytic Distillation in a Packed Column

Experiments are carried out to determine, under comparable conditions, the mass-transfer efficiency of a packed column in catalytic distillation of a chemically reactive mixture and in multicomponent distillation of the same mixture that is uncomplicated by chemical transformations. The reactive distillation process involves the reversible equimolar reaction of transesterification between butyl acetate and ethanol to form butanol and ethyl acetate. It is shown that the experimental data on the packed zone of the column are satisfactorily fitted by an equilibrium cascade model. The number of stages in the cascade is found from the Fenske-Underwood equation. In the experiments performed, both in the catalytic distillation and in the multicomponent distillation uncomplicated by chemical transformations, the height equivalent to a cascade stage is the same (20 cm).