Improving the Circularity of Sugarcane Mills: Evaluation of Technologies for Obtaining Isoamyl Acetate from Fusel Oil

The commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and the need for increasing the circularity of industrial processes call for the exploitation of byproducts to generate value-added chemicals in cost- and energy-advantageous processes. In this process simulation-based research, two technologies were evaluated for the synthesis of isoamyl acetate from fusel oil: (A) an indirect process, and (B) a direct process using reactive distillation. Aspen Hysys v14.0 was used for simulation. A sensitivity analysis was performed to identify the influence of operating parameters on product purity, isoamyl acetate recovery and productivity, and energy consumption. Technology B was found to be the most favorable, obtaining 22.27 kg/h of isoamyl acetate with a purity of 98%. The total consumption values of cooling water and heating were 24.33 kW and 24.50 kW, respectively. Based on the best conditions, a technical–economic analysis was performed that demonstrated the viability of the process, obtaining a net present value (NPV) of US$3,587,110/year, an internal rate of return (IRR) of 38.95% and a payback period (PP) of 5.05 years. If acid recirculation is considered in the process, an NPV of US$7,232,950, an IRR of 56.34%, and a PP of 3.56 years are obtained.