ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Design consideration of dimethyl succinate production process

Jozef Dudáš, Marcel Kotora, Michal Bradáč, and Jozef Markoš

Institute of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Radlinského 9, 812 37, Bratislava, Slovakia

E-mail: jozef.markos@stuba.sk

Abstract: Esterification of succinic acid to form dimethyl succinate has been analysed and the process design is presented in this paper. The process analysis and design are based on our own experimental data (kinetics), information from open literature, and own mathematical models and computer programs for process simulation and evaluation. Reactive distillation and a tubular reactor followed by separation of components from the reaction mixture were considered and evaluated. An economic analysis indicated that operational costs dominate over the capital ones in the costs estimation and that the integration of partial processes into one vessel (reactive distillation) is advantageous. However, according to the analysis of the process conditions (temperature and pressure) for the reaction and distillation, it is impossible to execute the process in one vessel. Therefore, a fixed bed reactor combined with distillation was proposed and the technology has been developed.

Keywords: reactive distillation – tubular fixed bed reactor – kinetic evaluation – design separation units

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-014-0580-4

Chemical Papers 68 (12) 1667–1677 (2014)