Study On The Catalytic Reaction Distillation Process Of Methyl Acetate

Methyl acetate is a by-product in polyvinyl alcohol producing process, it was hydrolysis in to acetic acid and methanol and separated in recovery section and re-use as raw materials in the industrial production. Because of the influence of equilibrium constants, the hydrolysis rate of methyl acetate in the fixed bed reactor was low, resulted in the high load of subsequent distillation system and the energy consumption. This study was using catalytic distillation column to improve the hydrolysis rate. Compared with fixed-bed reactor, adding catalytic distillation column could improve the hydrolysis rate of methyl acetate, reducing energy consumption. With the using of catalytic distillation column would affect the flowing separation tower, this research did the experimental on the influence of different operation conditions after the adding of reaction distillation tower. The result showed that adding the reaction distillation tower could raise the hydrolysis rate to70%, and the products meet the technical requirements. Based on the experimental data, the simulation model of the separation process was established, the separation effect under different operation conditions was calculated. This provide the basis for the unit transformation. The energy consumption was calculated and optimized.