Design and control of transesterification reactive distillation with thermal coupling

In the study, the design and control strategies of a reactive distillation process with partially thermal coupling for the production of methanol and n-butyl acetate by transesterification reaction of methyl acetate and n-butanol are investigated. Since methanol and methyl acetate formed an azeotrope, the products of a reactive distillation column include n-butyl acetate and the mixture of methanol and methyl acetate, which must be separated by an additional column. Partially thermal coupling can be used to eliminate the condenser of the second column. Not only energy reduction but also better operability and controllability can be obtained for the thermally coupled reactive distillation process. Proper selection and pairing of controlled and manipulated variables chosen for three control objectives were determined by using steady-state analysis. A simple control scheme with three temperature control loops is sufficient to maintain product purities and stoichiometric balance between the reactant feeds. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.