Recovery of acetic acid by reactive distillation: Parametric study and nonlinear dynamic effects

Abstract

The paper presents a parametric study for the design of a reactive distillation column used to recover acetic acid from dilute aqueous solution (30% w/w) through the formation of methyl acetate. The parameters such as feed molar ratio, feed location, reflux ratio, and reboil ratio are varied by a one-parameter continuation method, and the best possible configuration is suggested. Close to quantitative recovery may be obtained by a proper choice of parameters, and reactive distillation can be successfully used for the recovery process. An. experimental support is provided to the recommended configuration. The system is highly nonlinear, and solution multiplicity is realized in a certain parametric space. Apart from input parameters, a possible role of modeling assumptions, kinetics, and phase equilibrium models on multiplicity has been discussed.