Modeling, simulation and analysis of a process for the production of crotonaldehyde

• The state-of-the-art process for crotonaldehyde production from acetaldehyde is described by a physico-chemical model.
• New information on the reaction scheme is used for the first time, the key intermediate aldoxane is considered.
• The formation of poly(oxymethylmethylene) glycols in the system acetaldehyde + water is explicitly accounted for.
• The process is analysed in comprehensive simulation studies.
• The results give new insights in the process and indicate that there is room for improvement.

Crotonaldehyde is an important intermediate in the chemical industry and usually produced from acetaldehyde in aqueous solution. Recently, new results on the reactions which yield crotonaldehyde from acetaldehyde have become available. It was shown that the formation of aldoxane from acetaldehyde and acetaldol, as well as the oligomer formation in the system acetaldehyde and water have to be taken into account. In the present paper, the established process for the production of crotonaldehyde is analyzed based on that new information. A model for the physico-chemical properties of the relevant mixtures is developed as well as an equilibrium stage based process model. The models are implemented in a steady state process simulation tool which is used for numerical studies of the process. The results provide unexpected insights in the process which contains distillations in which complex reactions occur. A conceptual process design is carried out applying a structured approach. The performance of the process is analyzed and potential for its optimization is discussed.