Simulated Heat Integration Study of Reactive Distillation Column for Ethanol Synthesis

Abstract

<em><span>Ethanol is largely used as a solvent in the synthesis of varnishes and perfumes. It is also used as a preservative for biological products, fuel, and gasoline additives. <span class="apple-converted-space">A</span>n</span><span>ethanol-water<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>mixture, normally obtained by<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>fractional distillation</span><span> <span>yields an azeotropic solution consisting of approximately 95 w% of ethanol.</span> The synthesis of ethanol in a reactive distillation column </span><span>with the azeotropic feed at 20ºC with ethylene oxide as another reactant feed for the reaction with water</span><span> to produce ethylene glycol was simulated in Aspenplus. Simulated results show 98.82 mol% purity of ethanol in the reactive distillation column. In order to reduce the energy consumption in reactive distillation, a Reactive Heat Integrated Distillation Column (R-HIDiC) is proposed for the same purity of ethanol product. From the simulated results, it has been found that the overall energy utilization in the proposed distillation column is reduced by 65% as compared to the conventional reactive distillation column. The pressure profile, temperature profile, and concentration profile of the reactive distillation column and the column proposed are also compared.</span></em>