Simulation and Analysis of Catalytic Distillation for Synthesizing Ethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether

摘要

A new application of catalytic distillation (CD) for the synthesis of ethylene glycol monobutyl ether (EGME) from ethylene oxide (EO) and n-butanol was developed recently in our laboratory. The main focus of the present study was to examine the steady state performance of a pilot plant CD column by using a rate-based model. A comparison of three different catalytic packings was performed to investigate the effect of packing characteristics on EO conversion and selectivity toward EGME. The influences of the key operating parameters and heat released by exothermic reaction were investigated. The simulation results obtained in this study indicated that the potential advantages of using CD for synthesizing EGME. A selectivity of 97% toward the desired product EGME could be achieved that was no possible with the traditional processes.