Design and Control of Glycerol-tert-Butyl Alcohol Etherification Process

Design, economics, and plantwide control of a glycerol-tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) etherification plant are presented. The reaction takes place in liquid phase, in a plug flow reactor, using Amberlyst 15 as a catalyst. The products' separation is achieved by two distillation columns where high-pur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:TheScientificWorld 2012-01, Vol.2012 (2012), p.1-11
Main Authors: Vlad, Elena, Bildea, Costin Sorin, Bozga, Grigore
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alcohol
Alcohols
Algorithms
Biodiesel fuels
Butanediol
Butanol
Catalysis
Chemical reactors
Chemistry
Columns (structural)
Computer simulation
Design
Distillation
Distillation - instrumentation
Distillation - methods
Dynamic stability
Engineering
Ethers
Ethers - chemistry
Flow stability
Flow velocity
Glycerol
Glycerol - chemistry
Kinetics
Methyl Ethers - chemistry
Models, Chemical
Plug flow
Plug flow chemical reactors
Pressure
Reactors
Recycling
Reproducibility of Results
tert-Butyl Alcohol - chemistry
Transition Temperature
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Summary:Design, economics, and plantwide control of a glycerol-tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) etherification plant are presented. The reaction takes place in liquid phase, in a plug flow reactor, using Amberlyst 15 as a catalyst. The products' separation is achieved by two distillation columns where high-purity ethers are obtained and a section involving extractive distillation with 1,4-butanediol as solvent, which separates TBA from the TBA/water azeotrope. Details of design performed in AspenPlus and an economic evaluation of the process are given. Three plantwide control structures are examined using a mass balance model of the plant. The preferred control structure fixes the fresh glycerol flow rate and the ratio glycerol + monoether : TBA at reactor-inlet. The stability and robustness in the operation are checked by rigorous dynamic simulation in AspenDynamics.
ISSN:2356-6140
1537-744X
1537-744X
DOI:10.1100/2012/180617