Simulación del proceso de producción del ácido cítrico a través de la oxidación catalítica del propileno gaseoso empleando el simulador ChemCAD®

In the following study, the simulation of the polymeric-grade acrylic acid (AA) production process is carried out using the simulator ChemCAD® version 5.2.0., in order to obtain mass balance results in all the process streams and also to know the most important design parameters of the equipment used. Two sensitivity studies were carried out: 1) influence of the absorption tower operating temperature in the amount of AA obtained at the bottom column; and 2) influence of the recovery column working pressure in the amount of acetic acid obtained on it. At the recovery column a liquid bottom stream containing AA with 99.90 % purity is obtained, while in the acids column the AA is obtained with 99.86 % purity at the bottom stream. It’s recommended that the absorption tower operates at a temperature near 20 °C, while the recovery column must run under vacuum conditions, in order to reduce both the AA and acetic acid losses.