Thermodynamic and economic evaluation of the butyl acetate production process via reactive distillation

This work deals with a study on the production of butyl acetate through the liquid phase reaction between methyl acetate and butanol. This reversible reaction generates methanol as a by-product and forms two azeotropes, presenting challenges in the process. To overcome these problems and reduce process units, two different configurations are investigated: one with three distillation columns and another with only two, both with a reactive distillation column. Although these distillation systems are efficient in terms of their purpose, they consume a significant amount of energy in the plants where they are used. Therefore, this study aims to thermodynamically and economically evaluate these processes, analyzing each column individually and the process as a whole. Concepts based on the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics are employed in the evaluation. Aspen PlusTM software simulates processes at a steady state, and their thermodynamic efficiency is evaluated based on availability. At the same time, the economic analysis considers total annual cost (TAC) and energy performance using specific energy consumption (SEC). The results indicate that reactive distillation columns have lower thermodynamic efficiency and more lost work than conventional columns. The two flow diagrams explored show close thermodynamic efficiency. In economic terms, the second configuration is more attractive, although there is a slight variation in the TAC value.