Shock-Control Study in Ethyl Acetate Production Process in a Reactive Distillation Column: Experimental and Simulation

In this article, the dynamics and shock-control in a Reactive Distillation Column (RDC) for the transesterification of ethanol and acetic acid was studied and simulated. The dynamic behavior of the process was experimentally analyzed. The reactants were conducted in a fifteen stages RDC in a single feed stream. An appropriate strategy was chosen and performed for column start up to achieve the steady state condition. The temperature, pressure, mass flow rates (TPF) and mole fractions effects in feed were considered in the column until a new steady state condition was obtained. For top flow of the column, the simulated results were compared with the experimental data. It concluded that there were errors less than 8% for the mole fraction shock results. Furthermore, there were errors less than 3.5% for the feed temperature shock results. Therefore, the simulation method applied in the current research could simulate a RDC well.