Comparison of different reactive distillation schemes for ethyl acetate production using sustainability indicators

• Different intensified processes for ethyl acetate production were evaluated.
• A novel dividing wall reactive distillation scheme was proposed.
• The total annual costs for each scheme was subjected to optimization.
• Different sustainability indicators were evaluated.
• Reactive dividing wall column has lower costs, energy demand and waste generation.

An assessment of different intensified processes for ethyl acetate production by direct esterification was performed. After the selection and validation of the adequate thermodynamic and kinetic models, a comparison among different reported processing technologies (i.e., conventional, reactive distillation, reactive distillation with pressure swing, dividing wall column with reactive reboiler), and a novel proposed configuration using a reactive dividing wall column was carried out. Specifications of raw materials and products used as constrains during simulations were defined according with market requirements. To perform a fair assessment among different alternatives, each process was optimized using a mixed strategy of sensitivity analysis coupled with sequential quadratic programming algorithm. Total annual cost was selected as the optimization variable. Conversion, productivity, mass intensity, mass productivity, Sheldońs Factor (E-Factor), water-free Sheldon’s factor (EW-Factor), and energy intensity were used as sustainability indicators. According with results, the novel reactive dividing wall column configuration proposed in this work ends up being the more energy efficient and cost effective (46% energy and 26% cost savings compared with the traditional process) and also it is characterized by the best sustainability indicators.