Production of n-butyl acetate from dilute acetic acid and n-butanol using different reactive distillation systems: Economic analysis

The production of n-butyl acetate from dilute acetic acid and n-butanol in three reactive distillation systems; i.e., single-column reactive distillation, distillation–reactive distillation hybrid system and pervaporation–reactive distillation hybrid system, was simulated using ASPEN PLUS program. The optimum system was selected based on the configuration which provided the minimum total annual cost. It was found that at the desired product purity of 98 mol%, the total annual costs for the case of the single-column reactive distillation fed by pure and 65 wt.% acetic acid were almost the same whereas it increased significantly when the dilute feed of 35 wt.% acetic acid was employed. Comparison among the three reactive distillation systems fed by 35 wt.% acetic acid revealed that although the pervaporation–reactive distillation hybrid system was an attractive choice according to its minimum energy requirement, the single-column reactive distillation appeared to be the best system in term of economic consideration as it offered the minimum total annual cost.