ENERGY EFFICIENT REACTIVE DISTILLATION SYNTHESIS OF N-HEXYL ACETATE: SIMULATION STUDY

Synthesis of N Hexyl acetate by reactive distillation using toluene entrainer is proposed in this work. The key objective is to minimize the energy requirement of the classical reactive distillation method used for hexyl acetate synthesis. Adding toluene as an entrainer reduces the energy demand, leading to cleaner and more affordable energy consumption. Simulation is performed using the RADFRAC equilibrium stage model, and the required experimental data are extracted from the literature to establish the simulation base case. The thermodynamic model NRTL represents the non-ideal behavior of the system. Simulation results closely matched the experimental findings, and the validated model is used further to evaluate the system’s performance with toluene as an entrainer. Parameters, reboiler duty, and entrainer flow rate are studied for minimizing energy requirement and quantitative conversion. A tremendous reduction in reboiler duty (50%) for the same operating conditions confirms that toluene entrainer is feasible for the continuous synthesis of hexyl acetate. This study significantly contributes to the use of alternative processes with affordable energy for cost reduction and making it potentially viable to the industry. 99.99 % conversion achieved ensures the successful application of this system in actual practice.