(617o) Equilibrium Shifting of Esterification with Water-Permselective Zeolite Membrane
AIChE Annual Meeting
2016
2016 AIChE Annual Meeting
Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division
Poster Session: Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE) Division
Wednesday, November 16, 2016 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm
AcOH + EtOH = EtOAc + H2O
It is well known that the esterification is equilibrium-limited reaction. So far, shifting the equilibrium point has been attempted by incorporating membrane separation of water. There are two schemes for water removal: one is the vapor permeation (VP) method to remove the water vapor in the vapor phase at equilibrium with the liquid reacting mixture; the other is the pervaporation (PV) method to remove the water directly from the liquid reacting mixture. This work focused on the vapor phase esterification in flow-type membrane reactor, where water vapor is selectively separated with vapor permeation (VP) using a CHA type zeolite membrane. Advantages in this vapor system, carried out at higher temperature, should be: (1) reaction rate will become larger than that in liquid phase operated at lower temperature, and (2) a higher rate of water vapor permeation (permeability) can be obtained. As an overall, a higher productivity of EtOAc with increasing reaction and permeation rates can be expected.