US EPA

1613724 

Journal Article 

Production of isopropyl palmitate in a catalytic distillation column: Comparison between experimental and simulation studies 

Bhatia, S; Mohamed, AR; Ahmad, AL; Chin, SY 

2007 

Yes 

Computers & Chemical Engineering
ISSN: 0098-1354 

31 

10 

1187-1198 

10.1016/j.compchemeng.2006.10.008 

WOS:000248958700001 

Fatty acid esterification is increasingly realized as a
reactive distillation (RD) process because of its formation being affected by the chemical
equilibrium. The reactive distillation column performance for the production of isopropyl
palmitate by esterification of the palmitic acid with isopropanot has been studied in the present
research. The reaction was catalyzed in the presence of zinc acetate supported on functionalized
silica gel catalyst. The process parameters such as total feed flow rate, reboiler temperature,
palmitic acid feed composition, palmitic acid feed temperature, molar ratio of isopropanol feed
to palmitic acid feed and reflux ratio were studied experimentally in the catalytic distillation
column. Two types of models were used for the simulation of catalytic distillation column. These
were (a) equilibrium stage model and (b) rate-based model. The predictions from the rate-based
model matched with the experimental results qualitatively and quantitatively. The simulation
study was also carried out to determine the effects of other important parameters and design
factors such as the column pressure, distillate to feed ratio, feed location, catalyst weight,
height of reactive zone and height of separation zones. A technically optimized RD process for
the production of isopropyl palmitate has been proposed on the basis of the experimental and
simulated data. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 

reactive distillation; fatty acid esterification; isopropyl palmitate; heterogeneous catalyst; experimental; modeling; simulation