A reactive distillation process for a cascade and azeotropic reaction system: Carbonylation of ethanol with dimethyl carbonate

Modelling and simulation of the reactive distillation column have bean carr ied out for the carbonylation process of ethanol with dimethyl carbonate (D MC) producing diethyl carbonate (DEC). As it includes three azeotropes and two cascade reversible reactions with an undesired intermediate, methyl-and -ethyl carbonate (MEC), the reactive distillation is ideally appropriate. C alculations via a robust transient method reveal that a complete DMC conver sion, a sound DEC selectivity over 99.5%, a perfect overcoming of azeotropi c limitation, as well as a thorough separation of the alcohols from carbona tes can be accomplished in the studied column. The model reliability is ana lyzed by assuming several values of Murphree tray efficiency, showing no co nsiderable difference between the equilibrium and non-equilibrium models fo r this system. Moreover, effects of the feed locations of the two reactants and the reflux ratio on the performance of the column are discussed, too. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.