Heat-integrated reactive distillation process for TAME synthesis

Abstract The integration of reaction and separation in one single process unit is generally more preferable than their application individually, which allows less energy consumption and environmental impacts. This work presents a novel practicable configuration of heat-integrated process based on reactive distillation that aims to reduce furthermore the energy requirements for tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME) synthesis, leading to competitive operating costs. The optimal design flowsheet of heat-integrated with reactive distillation was obtained by minimizing the total annual cost (TAC) of this process. Simulation study was conducted to compare the heat-integrated scheme and conventional reactive distillation (CRD). The proposed technology was demonstrated to decrease the TAC which was 6.56% less than that of the CRD. The control strategy of this heat-integrated design was also developed. Only tray temperature control loop was needed to reject feed disturbances to maintain the quality of the products. Overall results demonstrate that the heat-integrated reactive distillation is a promising approach for TAME synthesis.

[1]  James M. Douglas,et al.  Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes , 1988 .

[2]  Muhammad A. Al-Arfaj,et al.  Plantwide control for TAME production using reactive distillation , 2004 .

[3]  William L. Luyben,et al.  Reactive Distillation Design and Control , 2008 .

[4]  F. Cunill,et al.  Molecular mechanisms of MTBE synthesis on a sulphonic acid ion exchange resin , 1987 .

[5]  William L. Luyben,et al.  Two-Stripper/Decanter Flowsheet for Methanol Recovery in the TAME Reactive-Distillation Process , 2009 .

[6]  A. Krause,et al.  Kinetic Model for the Etherification of Isoamylenes with Methanol , 1997 .

[7]  U. Hoffmann,et al.  The synthesis of tertiary amyl methyl ether (TAME) : microkinetics of the reactions , 1996 .

[8]  Andreas Beckmann,et al.  Reactive distillation : industrial applications, process design & scale-up , 2001 .

[9]  Hua Wang,et al.  Thermodynamic and kinetic study of tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME) synthesis , 2008 .

[10]  Anton A. Kiss,et al.  Heat-integrated reactive distillation process for synthesis of fatty esters , 2011 .

[11]  J. Segovia-Hernández,et al.  Reactive dividing wall distillation columns: Simulation and implementation in a pilot plant☆ , 2009 .

[12]  Eugeny Y. Kenig,et al.  Hydrodynamic analogy approach for modelling of reactive stripping with structured catalyst supports , 2010 .

[13]  P. Kiviranta-Pääkkönen,et al.  Simultaneous Isomerization and Etherification of Isoamylenes with Methanol , 2003 .

[14]  Jürgen Gmehling,et al.  Esterification of a Fatty Acid by Reactive Distillation , 2003 .

[15]  Xuemei Zhang,et al.  Synthesis of methylal by catalytic distillation , 2011 .

[16]  Rajamani Krishna,et al.  Modelling reactive distillation , 2000 .

[17]  E. Gilles,et al.  Steady-state multiplicities in reactive distillation columns for the production of fuel ethers MTBE and TAME: theoretical analysis and experimental verification , 1999 .

[18]  Megan Jobson,et al.  Conceptual design of single-feed kinetically controlled reactive distillation columns , 2005 .

[19]  Robin Smith,et al.  Chemical Process: Design and Integration , 2005 .

[20]  Qunsheng Li,et al.  Synthesis of dimethyl ether (DME) by catalytic distillation , 2011 .

[21]  A. Tsutsumi,et al.  Towards further internal heat integration in design of reactive distillation columns—part I: The design principle , 2005 .

[22]  P. Kiviranta-Pääkkönen,et al.  Simultaneous Isomerization and Etherification of Isoamylenes , 1999 .

[23]  B. Linnhoff,et al.  Heat integration of distillation columns into overall processes , 1983 .

[24]  Johan Grievink,et al.  Process intensification and process systems engineering: A friendly symbiosis , 2008, Comput. Chem. Eng..

[25]  William L. Luyben,et al.  Design and Control of a Fully Heat-Integrated Pressure-Swing Azeotropic Distillation System , 2008 .

[26]  A. Górak,et al.  Scale-up of reactive distillation columns with catalytic packings , 2004 .

[27]  Cheng-Ching Yu,et al.  Design of reactive distillations for acetic acid esterification , 2005 .

[28]  Kai Sundmacher,et al.  Multiple reactions in catalytic distillation processes for the production of the fuel oxygenates MTBE and TAME : analysis by rigorous model and experimental validation , 1999 .

[29]  Rajamani Krishna,et al.  Hardware selection and design aspects for reactive distillation columns. A case study on synthesis of TAME , 2002 .

[30]  Jürgen Gmehling,et al.  Reaction Kinetics and Chemical Equilibrium of Homogeneously and Heterogeneously Catalyzed Acetic Acid Esterification with Methanol and Methyl Acetate Hydrolysis , 2000 .

[31]  Hong Li,et al.  Hydrolysis of methyl acetate via catalytic distillation: Simulation and design of new technological process , 2010 .

[32]  A. Stankiewicz.  Reactive separations for process intensification: an industrial perspective , 2003 .

[33]  Megan Jobson,et al.  Conceptual Design of Equilibrium Reactor−Reactive Distillation Flowsheets , 2007 .

[34]  William L. Luyben.  Comparison of Pressure-Swing and Extractive-Distillation Methods for Methanol-Recovery Systems in the TAME Reactive-Distillation Process , 2005 .

[35]  James R. Fair,et al.  Design Guidelines for Solid-Catalyzed Reactive Distillation Systems , 1999 .