Study On The Preparation Of Methyl Acetate By Slurry Catalytic Distillation Process

Slurry catalytic distillation is a novel catalytic distillation process developed in recent years. The fine catalyst particles are mixed with liquid phase to form slurry which flows down in the column and recycles between the reactive distillation column and catalyst recovery column. In this paper, the slurry catalytic distillation process was experimentally studied on the esterification of glacial acid by methanol. The experiments were carried out in a glass column with an inner diameter of 76 and the catalyst was acidic ion-exchange resin about 4mmμ m in diameter. The effects of catalyst concentration, reflux ratio, feed mole ratio of glacial acid to methanol and total feed flow on the process were experimentally investigated. The experiment results indicate that: the increases of catalyst concentration, feed mole ratio of glacial acid to methanol and the decrease of total feed flow can increase the yield of methyl acetate; the concentration of methyl acetate in distillate also increases with the increase of catalyst concentration; that the effects of reflux ratio on the yield and concentration of methyl acetate in distillate are different from conventional distillation process, an optimal value of reflux ratio exists between 1 and 2 for this process. Based on equilibrium stage model, the experiment processes and the effects of operation parameters on process were simulated by using Aspen Plus software. The simulation results show that the calculated results agree satisfactorily with the experiment data, and provide also the basis for designing process and column of slurry catalytic distillation. Compared with conventional catalytic distillation, slurry catalytic distillation holds more advantages, such as: simpler column structure, easier to operate and control, higher efficiency of reaction and separation, more suitable to large scale production, etc. The slurry catalytic distillation process is worth researching and developing.