Determination of optimum operating conditions with a dynamic simulation of a reactive distillation column by response surface method

In the scope of this thesis, the optimization of operating conditions was performed in a dynamic simulated reactive distillation (RD) column. The effect of the operating parameters on the production rate of ethyl acetate was determined by the reaction between ethanol and acetic acid. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied to determine the optimum operating conditions of the RD column. The simulation design used in RSM was created with the trial version of Design Expert 7.0.0. program. Acetic acid feed rate (kmol/h), ethanol feed rate (kmol/h), reflux ratio and temperature were determined as the most important parameters effect on the RD column using Placket-Burman (PB) design. Central Composite Design (CCD) was applied to determine the optimum operating conditions of the RD column. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the interaction between the response and independent variables and the obtained data. The second order regression model of the production of ethyl acetate according to independent variables was developed using the Design Expert 7.0.0 program. Three-dimensional (3D) graphs which created with CCD were interpreted. In order to the highest ethyl acetate production rate, acetic acid feed rate, ethanol feed rate, reflux ratio and temperature were determined 149.86 kmol/h, 99.99 kmol/h, 2.50 and 70°C, respectively. This study shows that the RSM can be a suitable method for optimization of operating parameters in the RD column. Keywords: ANOVA, Dynamic simulation, Optimization, Reactive distillation, Response surface methodology