Pilot plant synthesis of n-propyl propionate via reactive distillation with decanter separator for reactant recovery. Experimental model validation and simulation studies

Liquid-liquid equilibrium for the quaternary system propionic acid + n-propanol + n-propyl propionate + water at 293.15, 313.15 and 333.15 K

“…For example, one can use the advantage of the phase splitting by coupling the distillation column with a liquid-liquid separator [4]. For this reason the majority of recent papers on n-propyl propionate production include the discussion of the splitting in propionic acid + n-propanol + n-propyl propionate + water system [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Nevertheless the available experimental data sets on LLE were presented for binary sub-systems and for ternary n-propanol + water + n-propyl propionate system only [11].…”

Pervaporation membrane reactors (PVMRs) for esterification

“…Some relevant and recent examples are esterification of acetic acid with methanol (Agreda & Partin, 1984;Chandrakar, Agarwal, Chand, & Wasewar, 2007), esterification of succinic acid and ethanol (Kolah, Asthana, Vu, Lira, & Miller, 2008a;Orjuela, Kolah, Lira, & Miller, 2011;Orjuela, Kolah, Hong, Lira, & Miller, 2012), reaction of citric acid (CA) with ethanol to give triethyl citrate (Kolah, Asthana, Vu, Lira, & Miller, 2008b) and CA (Kolah, Asthana, Vu, Lira, & Miller, 2007), esterification of 1-propanol and propionic acid (Kotora, Buchaly, Kreis, G orak, & Marko s, 2008;Altman et al, 2010;Cruz-Diaz et al, 2012;, esterification of acetic acid and ethanol (Yagyu et al, 2013) (which is the most studied reaction concerning reactive distillation for esterification (Drioli & Giorno, 2010)), esterification of acetic acid with n-butanol (Arpornwichanop, Koomsup, & Assabumrungrat, 2008), esterification of acryl acid with 1,4-butanediol to obtain 4-hydroxybutyl acrylate (Yang, Cho, Park, & Lee, 2007), reaction of lactic acid with n-butanol (Kumar & Mahajani, 2007), esterification of acrylic acid and n-butanol (Niesbach, Fuhrmeister, Keller, Lutze, & Gorak, 2012), synthesis of an n-butyl acetate system using a reactive distillation from an agroindustrial waste (i.e., starting from oil of Fusel) (Altomare, Labrador, Rodriguez, Morales, & Fernandez, 2012), and esterification of butyric acid and n-butanol (Ju et al, 2011). Some relevant and recent examples are esterification of acetic acid with methanol (Agreda & Partin, 1984;Chandrakar, Agarwal, Chand, & Wasewar, 2007), esterification of succinic acid and ethanol (Kolah, Asthana, Vu, Lira, & Miller, 2008a;Orjuela, Kolah, Lira, & Miller, 2011;Orjuela, Kolah, Hong, Lira, & Miller, 2012), reaction of citric acid (CA) with ethanol to give triethyl citrate (Kolah, Asthana, Vu, Lira, & Miller, 2008b) and CA (Kolah, Asthana, Vu, Lira, & Miller, 2007), esterification of 1-propanol and propionic acid …”

Design and control of reactive distillation–recovery distillation flowsheet with a decanter for synthesis of N-propyl propionate

“…Altman et al [3] performed experiments of the synthesis of ProPro in a pilot-scale column, especially in a single RD column coupled with a decanter, but several operation difficulties were discovered in their work. If the reactants were fed to the column on the basis of the stoichiometry of the chemistry, a single column could not meet the requirements in purity and conversion.…”