Modeling and Simulation of Catalytic Distillation Column for Esterification of Acetic Acid with Methanol

Abstract

The present investigation pertains to a theoretical study of simulation of a multicomponent catalytic distillation column. Basically it deals with the development of a mathematical model for esterification of acetic acid with methanol by using a packed column with two different feed setups: a single feed column and a two feed column. The reaction kinetics has been assumed to be heterogeneous. It also includes the solution technique for the solution of the model. An in-house code in C++ has been developed to solve the model equations. Further, the comparison of the model has been done with available experimental data. Finally the effect of design variables namely- reflux ratio, feed tray location, and start of reactive section have been studied.