Analysis of novel configurations of an intensified process for ethyl lactate production

Abstract

Ethyl lactate is a biodegradable and non-toxic ester with market growth potential. It is used in different industries. In this work, aiming to reduce the production cost of this solvent, seeking to make it even more competitive in the market, an intensified process was proposed and evaluated with a reactive distillation column followed by extractive distillation for recovery and reuse of compounds present in the process. An optimization study was developed using Aspen Plus and MATLAB® in order to find a configuration with the minimum total annualized cost (TAC). An economically competitive structure was found. Based on this structure, simulation studies were developed by applying the vapor recompression technique in the extractive distillation column and keeping the reactive distillation column. In economic terms, an even more competitive structure, was found, with a reduction of around 48 % in the TAC compared to the results reported in the literature.