(228e) Isoamyl Propionate Production By Reactive Distillation

One of the by-products of the bio-ethanol industry is the fusel oil, which is principally composed by isoamyl alcohol. To improve the economics of the bio-ethanol industry, this work studied the production of isoamyl propionate by reactive distillation  (RD) based on the direct esterification of isoamyl alcohol with propionic acid using Amberlyst 70® ion exchange resin as catalyst. From previous experimental works, models for the phase equilibria and reaction kinetics were obtained and used into the design of RD processes. A conceptual design was performed with the construction of residual curves maps (RCM), including and without including the chemical reaction effects. From the phase-equilibria and reaction kinetics models, with the principal conclusions of the RCM, simulations of possible continuous and batch DR operations were performed in the software Aspen Plus 7.3. From the more promising simulated conditions for high reagents conversions (over 95%) and high products purities (over 98%w), several experiments in a continuous pilot-scale RD column and a laboratory-scale batch RD equipment were performed, using Mellapack® as continous column packing. The experimental results agree accurately with the simulated predictions concluding the RD viability for this reactive system.