Abstract Esterification of acetic acid and methanol to produce methyl acetate and water has been studied in a continuous packed bed catalytic reactive distillation column. Indion 180, an ion-exchange resin solid catalyst has loaded in an equivalent Katapak-S into the reactive section of the column. The experiments were conducted under different operating conditions of reboiler temperature, total feed flow rate of the reactants, methanol to acetic acid mole ratio, feed location of acetic acid and methanol with respect to reactive section, reflux ratio and catalyst amount to investigate the composition of distillate and reboiler respectively. The maximum methyl acetate composition and acetic acid conversion is obtained at reboiler temperature of 80 °C, reflux ratio of 2, total feed flow rate of 16.3 g/min, catalyst loading of 60 g and mole ratio of methanol to acetic acid is 1. From the experimental investigations, it is found that the composition of the methyl acetate in the distillate is 95% by mole at an optimized experimental condition. The experimental data has been compared with equilibrium and non-equilibrium model predictions and found that non-equilibrium model is able to predict the experimental data reasonably good. The calculated error from equilibrium model relative to experimental data is 4.71% and rate based model relative to experimental data is 0.61%. It is observed that the error is less in rate based model compared to equilibrium model.

中文翻译：

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酯化过程连续反应蒸馏的实验和模拟研究

摘要 在连续填充床催化反应精馏塔中研究了乙酸和甲醇的酯化反应生产乙酸甲酯和水。Indion 180 是一种离子交换树脂固体催化剂，已将等效的 Katapak-S 负载到塔的反应部分。在再沸器温度、反应物总进料流量、甲醇与乙酸摩尔比、乙酸和甲醇相对于反应段的进料位置、回流比和催化剂用量等不同操作条件下进行实验，以研究反应物的组成。分别为馏出物和再沸器。在再沸器温度为 80 °C、回流比为 2、总进料流速为 16.3 g/min、催化剂负载量为 60 g，甲醇与乙酸的摩尔比为 1。通过实验研究发现，在优化的实验条件下，馏出物中乙酸甲酯的组成为 95 摩尔％。将实验数据与平衡和非平衡模型的预测进行了比较，发现非平衡模型能够很好地预测实验数据。平衡模型相对于实验数据的计算误差为 4.71%，基于速率的模型相对于实验数据的计算误差为 0.61%。可以观察到，与平衡模型相比，基于速率的模型中的误差较小。在优化的实验条件下，馏出液中乙酸甲酯的组成为95%（摩尔）。将实验数据与平衡和非平衡模型的预测进行了比较，发现非平衡模型能够很好地预测实验数据。平衡模型相对于实验数据的计算误差为 4.71%，基于速率的模型相对于实验数据的计算误差为 0.61%。可以观察到，与平衡模型相比，基于速率的模型中的误差较小。在优化的实验条件下，馏出液中乙酸甲酯的组成为95%（摩尔）。将实验数据与平衡和非平衡模型的预测进行了比较，发现非平衡模型能够很好地预测实验数据。平衡模型相对于实验数据的计算误差为 4.71%，基于速率的模型相对于实验数据的计算误差为 0.61%。可以观察到，与平衡模型相比，基于速率的模型中的误差较小。71%，基于速率的模型相对于实验数据为 0.61%。可以观察到，与平衡模型相比，基于速率的模型中的误差较小。71%，基于速率的模型相对于实验数据为 0.61%。可以观察到，与平衡模型相比，基于速率的模型中的误差较小。