Simulation study on production of methyl ethyl ketone via dehydration of 2,3-butanediol in fixed-bed reactor
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Date
2019-06
Authors
Lee, Jing Yi
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Abstract
The production of methyl ethyl ketone using 2,3-butanediol in which the reactant is produced from renewable feedstock such as fermentation of biomass is gaining attention and thus the simulation study on the process is required prior to the implementation in industrial scale. With the development of computer-aided tool such as Aspen Plus, it is possible to simulate and optimize the process to achieve desired end-product quality. Hence, the operating variables that will affect the yield of methyl ethyl ketone is required to be understand. In this work, Aspen Plus was used to simulate a fixed-bed reactor for dehydration of 2,3-butanediol which produces methyl ethyl ketone as main product and 1,3-butadiene, 3-buten-2-ol, 2-methylpropanal and water as by-products in the presence of amorphous calcium phosphate catalyst with nitrogen as carrier gas. In order to replicate a similar reactor model, the simulated results obtained through Aspen Plus was compared with simulation results from literature. Results showed that the simulated model is acceptable with the errors for conversion, products selectivity and temperature profile along reactor catalyst bed length which were 0.30 %, 9.04 % and 1.73 %, respectively. Sensitivity analysis on the same reactor model showed that gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) had significant effect on the conversion of 2,3-butanediol and methyl ethyl ketone yield. The conversion and yield were found to be increase with decrease in GHSV. The sensitivity analysis on reactor temperature showed a flat pattern which may due to faulty model while the reactor pressure gave insignificant effect towards 2,3-butanediol conversion and methyl ethyl ketone yield but affected to other products yield.