Experimental investigations of the production of methyl acetate in batch catalytic distillation process in the presence of Indion 180

As a novel study, esterification of acetic acid with methanol has been studied in a simple batch reactive distillation apparatus to produce methyl acetate as main product and water as byproduct. Novel solid catalyst named Indion 180 has been used in this esterification process. The product methyl acetate can be distilled out in two ways namely sequential and simultaneous reactive distillation. In the simple distillation batch process, first the reaction is carried out till the equilibrium with total reflux of vapours, and then distillation is carried out where the vapours are condensed and collected separately with zero reflux. In the second case, simultaneous reaction and distillation processes are carried out. During these experiments, the dynamics of bubble point temperature of the reboiler is recorded and analyzed. From the experimental results it is found that the maximum purity of methyl acetate in instantaneous distillate of reaction followed by distillation and simultaneous reaction and distillation are 0.847 and 0.782, respectively, as analyzed by gas chromatography. From these studies it is found that a batch distillation apparatus itself can be used in certain way to produce the desired product for the case of methyl acetate production by monitoring the temperature regime of the reboiler.