A comprehensive study of esterification and hydrolysis of methyl acetate in simulated moving bed systems

Abstract

In this research work, a comprehensive study of esterification and hydrolysis of methyl acetate in simulated moving bed systems was performed. The adsorption equilibrium constants, dispersion coefficients and kinetic parameters for the model reaction systems were determined. A mathematical model was developed to describe the behavior of SMBR unit and was verified experimentally at different operating conditions. Parametric analysis was carried out based on the verified model to systematically investigate the effects of the process parameters on the performance of SMBR. The experimental as well as theoretical results reveal that there is a complex interplay of the operating parameters on the reactor performance. Some of the parameters act in conflicting ways. Therefore, a comprehensive multi-objective optimization study was performed for the synthesis and hydrolysis of methyl acetate in SMBR and its modification, reactive Varicol process to determine appropriate design and operating conditions for successful implementation on industrial scale. It was found that reactive Varicol performs better than SMBR due to its increased flexibility in column distribution. A robust, non-traditional global optimization technique known as Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA) was used in obtaining the optimal solutions.