Synthesis Of Butyl Lactate By Reactive Distillation

The kinetics of butyl lactate synthesis catalyzed by supported heteropoly acid was studied. And the reactive distillation process of synthesis of butyl lactate was simulated by ASPEN PLUS.The kinetics of the synthesis of butyl lactate was measured in a batch stirred reactor with supported heteropoly acid as catalyst. The effects of reaction temperature, catalyst dosage and mole ratio of butanol to lactic acid of the esterification were investigated. The results shows that the synthesis of butyl lactate is a second-order reaction. The activation energy is 37.02 kJ·mol^-1 . According to the kinetic data of experiment, the mathematic model was obtained by linear regression. These provided basic data for the simulation and calculation of the process of catalytic distillation.The process of reactive distillation was analysted using ASPEN PLUS simulation software. A simulation model based on RADFRAC block using NRTL property method was established. The operation parameters of the distillation column, such as reflux ratio, feed stage and distillate to feed ratio were optimized on the basis of sensitivity analysis, which would be useful for the farther work.