THE DEVELOPMENT OF A BASIC PROCESS SCHEME FOR THE PREPARATION OF ISOAMYL ACETATE

• Main Authors: S. L. Nazanskiy, M. S. Glukhova
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: MIREA - Russian Technological University 2018-12-01
• Series: Тонкие химические технологии
• Subjects: isoamyl acetate; process flow scheme; distillation and liquid phase splitting; recycling
• Online Access: https://www.finechem-mirea.ru/jour/article/view/181

The article reports the development of a technological scheme for isoamyl acetate preparation on the basis of kinetic data, vapor-liquid and liquid-liquid equilibrium data. A review of isoamyl acetate production methods was made. At present most of the methods are based on esterification reaction, which takes place in the presence of homogenous and heterogeneous catalysts. Heterogeneous catalysis is preferred because of absence the catalyst separation problem. In the first part of the work vapor-liquid and liquid-liquid equilibrium simulation was made. NRTL and UNIQUAC models were used to calculate phase equilibrium of a quaternary reaction mixture. It was proved by comparison of deviations of the calculated temperature and vapor mole fractions from the experimental values that NRTL is the best model for the considered mixture phase equilibrium calculations. This model was used in further calculations of distillation and liquid-liquid splitting. The choice of the technological scheme is based on the use of the principle of both distillation and liquid phase separation and the recycling of substances in the system. The difficulty in isolating pure isoamyl acetate as a product is due to the presence of four binary azeotropes and two triple ones in the system. When developing and selecting a technological scheme, the possibility of obtaining maximum conversions of the reactants was taken into account. Besides, when designing and calculating the scheme, an assumption was made about infinite separating ability of separation distillation columns. To check operating efficiency of the scheme in real conditions, a verification calculation was made to determine the minimum and working reactor volume. The minimum and working reactor volume calculation was based on the Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson model for the kinetics of the esterification reaction. The selection of constructive and operating parameters of the scheme, at which high quality of isoamyl acetate is achieved, was made.