The production of methyl decanoate (MeDC) through esterification of decanoic acid (DeC) with methanol by reactive distillation is operationally challenging and energy-intensive due to the complicated behaviour of the reaction system and the difficulty of retaining the reactants together in the reaction region. Methanol being the lightest component in the mixture can separate itself from the reactant DeC as the distillation proceeds which will cause a massive reduction in the conversion of DeC utilizing either a batch or continuous distillation process. Aiming to overcome this type of the potential problem, novel integrated divided-wall batch reactive distillation configuration (i-DWBD) with recycling from the distillate tank is established in this study and is examined in detail.

This study has clearly demonstrated that the integrated divided-wall batch reactive distillation column (i-DWBD) is superior to the traditional conventional batch distillation (CBD) and both the divided-wall (DWBD), and split reflux divided-wall (sr-DWBD) batch reactive distillation configurations in terms of maximum achievable purity of MeDC and higher conversion of DeC into MeDC. In addition, significant batch time and energy savings are possible when the i-DWBD is operated in multi-reflux mode.

通过反应蒸馏通过癸酸（DeC）与甲醇的酯化反应来生产癸酸甲酯（MeDC），由于反应系统的行为复杂且难以将反应物保持在反应区中，因此在操作上具有挑战性且需要大量能源。甲醇是混合物中最轻的组分，随着蒸馏的进行，其自身会与反应物DeC分离，这将导致分批或连续蒸馏方法大大降低DeC的转化率。为了克服这种潜在的问题，本研究建立了一种新型的集成式分壁间歇式反应蒸馏装置（i-DWBD），该装置具有从馏出罐回收的功能，并对其进行了详细研究。

这项研究清楚地表明，集成式分隔壁间歇反应蒸馏塔（i-DWBD）优于传统的常规间歇蒸馏（CBD）以及分隔壁（DWBD）和分流回流分隔壁（sr- DWBD）分批反应蒸馏配置，可实现MeDC的最大纯度以及DeC向MeDC的更高转化率。此外，当i-DWBD在多回流模式下运行时，可以显着节省批处理时间并节省能源。