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Reaction–Separation–Recycle Processes for 2‑Ethylhexyl Acrylate Production: Design, Control, and Economic Evaluation
journal contribution
posted on 2018-02-09, 23:04 authored by Mihai Daniel Moraru, Costin Sorin Bildea2-Ethylhexyl acrylate
is commercially produced from acrylic acid
and 2-ethylhexanol using sulfuric acid as catalyst. Employing solid
catalysts can eliminate corrosion, increase selectivity, and make
easier the separation and product purification. Process development
studies for a complete plant have not been reported in the literature.
In this paper, the design, control, and economic evaluation of three
reaction–separation–recycle processes are developed.
The reaction takes place in a fixed-bed reactor using Amberlyst 70
as catalyst. The acrylate is recovered by distillation at the desired
purity. One of the processes obtains high-purity wastewater by removing
the water in a distillation–decanter system. The other two
obtain low-purity water in a flash-decanter, and a decanter-only system,
respectively. All three processes are controllable, the control system
showing robustness when an increase or decrease in production capacity
is required, or when the fresh reactants become contaminated. The
economic analysis shows attractive economic potential and other key
economic indicators.