Optimization of the Production of 1,1-Diethoxybutane by Simulated Moving Bed Reactor

Simulated moving bed technology is applied in the field of pharmaceutical, petrochemical and fine chemistry. It shows capability in separating multicomponent mixtures up to high purities. In this work, an attempt was made to optimize the production of 1,1-diethoxybutane (DEB), using the simulated mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jasper Spitters, Jonathan C. Gonçalves, Rui P. V. Faria, Alírio E. Rodrigues
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-01-01
Series:Processes
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/9/2/189
Description
Summary:Simulated moving bed technology is applied in the field of pharmaceutical, petrochemical and fine chemistry. It shows capability in separating multicomponent mixtures up to high purities. In this work, an attempt was made to optimize the production of 1,1-diethoxybutane (DEB), using the simulated moving bed technology. A fixed bed model is made with good agreement with experimental results. This fixed bed model was expanded to a simulated moving bed model. This model was used to determine the optimum conditions regarding the switching time and flowrates in each section. From this model, the optimum switching time was found to be 2.4 min, and the ratio of liquid flowrate over the solid flowrate was found to be 4.24, 1.77, 3.03 and 1.35, respectively. Under those conditions, the productivity was 19.8 kg DEB per liter of adsorbent per day, and the desorbent consumption was 6.1 L of ethanol per kg of DEB. The results were obtained with a minimum purity of the extract and raffinate of 97%.
ISSN:2227-9717