Enzymatic reactive distillation for the transesterification of ethyl butyrate: model validation and process analysis

First published in
Computer aided chemical engineering  
Number in series
37
Start Page
2135
End Page
2140
Citation
Computer Aided Chemical Engineering (37): 2135-2140 (2015)
Contribution to Conference
12th International Symposium on Process Systems Engineering and 25th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering  
Publisher DOI
10.1016/B978-0-444-63576-1.50050-9
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84940527267
Publisher
Elsevier
For the production of new and more sustainable products, new technologies need to be developed. Within process intensification, reactive distillation which is the integration of reaction and distillation in one apparatus is one known technology. A new concept is to integrate enzymes into the distillation column which enables new or more selective reaction routes. However, matching operating windows is difficult due to for example the temperature sensitiveness of the enzyme. Here, modeling is an important tool for design, scale-up, analysis and optimization of chemical and biochemical processing by enzymatic reactive distillation systems. The lipase-catalyzed transesterification of ethylbutyrate with n-butanol is highlighted, which is an equilibrium-limited reaction. Based on kinetic data and investigations of a surface coating to provide the enzyme into the reactive section, a detailed model of a continuous enzymatic reactive distillation is developed in Aspen Custom Modeler®, including hydrodynamic and mass transfer investigations of coated reactive packings. Subsequently, the detailed model is validated against experimental data of a pilot-scale enzymatic reactive distillation column with a diameter of 50. mm to check the agreement between experiments and modeling.
Subjects
Biocatalysis
Catalytic distillation
Process intensification
Process simulation
DDC Class
540: Chemie
600: Technik
More Funding Information
Funding from the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia in the framework of CLIB-Graduate Cluster Industrial Biotechnology, contract no: 314 - 108 001 08