Design and analysis of reactive distillation for the production of isopropyl myristate

This work explains the production of isopropyl myristate (IPM), an ester formed from the esterification reaction of myristic acid and isopropyl alcohol in a reactive-distillation column. The design of the column has been done to achieve a dual process objective of achieving product purity of 99% and reactant conversion (99%) to produce 1000 kg/hr IPM at 30°C and about 1 bar pressure conditions existing within the column. The reboiler duty comes to be 190 kW against the condenser duty of 160 kW when an entrainer, cyclohexane at 1975 kg/hr is used, which can be reduced by employing two columns. The nonlinear quaternary system is solved using NRTL thermodynamic package, and the reactive distillation column is designed. The IMC-PID-based temperature controller has been designed for a closed-loop structure to achieve safe operation and desired dynamic control behavior and simulated by using MATLAB. The column has been stable under both steady-state and dynamic conditions by stabilizing the non-linear performance of the column by the controllers. The process integration of the reactor and separator into one column has minimized a process plant's operating and investment cost.