Novel Process for Butyl Acetate Production via Membrane Reactor: A Comparative Study with the Conventional and Reactive Distillation Processes

Abstract

Butyl acetate (BuAc) is widely used as a solvent in many applications, mainly in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The conventional process for BuAc production is both capital and energy intensive. The purification process involves the separation of BuAc from the azeotropic mixture of water and n-butanol, which is difficult to accomplish using a simple distillation unit. In this study, a membrane reactor (MR) for BuAc production via the esterification of n-butanol was investigated. The MR using the Amberlyst-15 catalyst was modeled and validated with previously reported experimental data, and a good agreement was achieved. The ultimate conversion of n-butanol using the MR was 92.0%, compared to 69.8% for the conventional reactor. This study is the first to propose an intensified MR-based process for butyl acetate production. The MR-based process was developed and rigorously simulated using Aspen Plus for an annual plant capacity of 92,500 metric tons of BuAc. The MR-based process is environmentally friendly regarding CO2 emissions, with a reduction of 80% compared to the conventional process. The economic analysis of the MR-based process shows a payback period of 2.7 years and a return on investment (ROI) of 23.1%. The MR-based process for BuAc production is a promising technology that provides similar key benefits as compared to the reactive distillation (RD) process.