Computer aided design of reactive distillation processes for the treatment of waste waters polluted with acetic acid

A theoretical study of reactive distillation processes to remove acetic acid from its 30 wt% aqueous solution by esterification with n-butanol is presented. Two different column structures were identified rendering theoretically close to 100 percent conversion of acetic acid. A model capable of precisely predicting the potential phase split is used. Total costs for the new processes are estimated and compared with estimated costs of nonreactive separation process. It is shown that more than 56 percent costs can be reduced by using the new processes. The dynamic behavior of both the processes are studied through a series of dynamic simulation runs.