Pervaporation Membrane-Catalytic Reactors for Isoamyl Acetate Production

This study reports the analysis and design of a liquid phase esterification process to convert acetic acid with isoamyl alcohol into acetate via reactive pervaporation, in presence an Amberlite IR-120 ion exchange resin catalyst. To accomplish this, catalytic reactor is coupled separation membrane unit (Pervaporation Membrane Reactor (PVMR)). In proposed unit, chemical reaction equilibrium favorably shifted towards formation by removing water help membrane. The developed using relevant thermodynamics, kinetics, transport models, considering different reactor-pervaporator configurations such as: (a) two-step continuous fixed bed-pervaporator (FBR+PVMU), (b) slurry (SR+PVMU), (c) single-step integrated (IFBPVMR), d) single step slurry-pervaporator (ISPVMR). performance PVMRs evaluated R recycle ratio, Ω area volume Da Damköhler dimensionless parameters. From various configurations, it shown that plug flow reactor-pervaporation (IFBPVMR) provides best performance. On basis simulations charts present study, operational conditions leading optimum ester yields as high 0.94 are predicted. These results provide valuable prospect for industrial scale-up implementation production units.