Acetalization of Glycerol with Formaldehyde by Reactive Distillation

作者：Hasabnis Amit; Mahajani Sanjay^*

来源：Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 2014, 53(31): 12279-12287.

DOI：10.1021/ie501577q

The feasibility of reactive distillation (RD) for the reversible acetalization of glycerol with formaldehyde is evaluated through experiments and simulations. Simultaneous removal of acetal and water from the reactive zone of the RD column helps shift the reaction in the forward direction and achieve close to quantitative conversion levels. The results of laboratory-scale RD experiments performed in this study are compared with the ones predicted by simulation using the kinetics developed in the present work. Since commercial formaldehyde is available in the form of its aqueous solution, a large amount of water has to be removed to achieve substantial conversion. An experimentally validated simulator is thus used to design an appropriate RD configuration that offers minimum energy consumption. Toluene is used as an entrainer to remove water from the RD column. The process is compared with the reported indirect route of transacetalization of glycerol with methylal.

• 出版日期2014-8-6