Entrainer Enhanced Reactive Distillation for Production of Butyl Acetate: Experimental Investigation in Pilot-Scale

Butyl acetate is produced from acetic acid and butanol via an esterification reaction in reactive distillation (RD). The product, butyl acetate, has been used as an internal entrainer until now. In this case, butyl acetate and water are removed at the top of column and separated into two different phases (organic and aqueous phases) after conden- sation, and butyl acetate rich organic phase is refluxed into the RD. This method makes butyl acetate remain high at the reactive zone, leading to lower equilibrium conversion and product yield. We introduced an extraneous entrainer to solve the problem. The extraneous entrainer forms a new azeotrope with water. The proposed process provides lower concen- tration of butyl acetate in the reactive zone than conventional RD processes using an internal entrainer. We compared the yield and production rate of butyl acetate between the proposed and conventional processes through pilot-scale experi- ments. Experimental and simulation results showed that the proposed process was more efficient than conventional pro- cess using internal entrainer.