Simulation And Optimization Of The Purification Process Of N-propanol

n-Propanol is a good organic solvent and an important feedstock. In the process for producing n-propanol, the first step is to obtain the crude n-propanol comprising contacting propionaldehyde and hydrogen with catalyst under hydrogenation conditions. The second step is to purify the crude n-propanol by the fractional distillation. This paper focuses attention on the research of purifying of the crude n-propanol. The vapor-liquid equilibrium data are required for designing product separation process. A device for measuring vapor-liquid equilibrium data by the CE vapor-liquid equilibrium device was set-up. The reliability of this device and feasibility for measuring vapor-liquid equilibrium of the studied system have been confirmed by measuring n-propanol-water system. The experimental results are in agreement with reference data.The vapor-liquid equilibrium data of the n-propanol-n-propyl propionate system have been measured at atmospheric pressure by the CE vapor-liquid equilibrium device. The thermodynamic consistency of this data was examined by the Herington method. The binary interaction parameters of the activity coefficient equation NRTL of this system were regressed. Based on the binary interaction parameters, the calculation vapor-liquid equilibrium data were in agreement with experimental data. It can supply the experimental data to the reference and the database of the simulation software.Based on the binary interaction parameters, the distillation calculation of the following four systems was carried out: n-propanol-n-propyl propionate, n-propanol-n-propyl propionate-water, the feed of the average massfraction of n-propyl propionate, the feed of the most biggest massfraction of n-propyl propionate. The distillations were operated by atmospheric pressure and vacuum pressure. The distillation operation parameters were optimized and the optimum parameters such as total theoretical stage, feed stage location, reflux ratio, distillate rate, were obtained. The operation of the distillation was preferred in vacuum pressure. The optimum parameters could provide the basis data for industrial distillation.