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Experimental evaluation of simulated moving bed reactor for transesterification reaction synthesis of glycol ether ester

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Abstract

This work presents an experimental evaluation of multi-column simulated moving bed reactor (SMBR) technology for transesterification of glycol ether ester for the first time. An industrially relevant solvent, propylene glycol methyl ether acetate (DOWANOL™ PMA) was produced using a laboratory-scale SMBR unit packed with a base catalyst. The catalyst selected in this study, a Type-II anion exchange resin, was found to be resistant to deactivation through our experimental runs. To design the SMBR process, single-column experiments were first carried out to develop a mathematical model and estimate model parameters. Using this model, the optimal SMBR process was found by a multi-objective optimization technique to maximize the productivity while achieving high conversions. The optimal operating conditions found in this manner were implemented in the lab-scale SMB unit, which achieved conversions ranging from 47.3 to 57.7%. Furthermore, using the experimental data obtained from these experimental runs, the prediction of the model was improved via Tikhonov regularization, which was successfully validated in an additional run at an even higher conversion of 74.6%.

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Abbreviations

A cs :

Cross-sectional area of the chromatographic column

EA :

Ethyl acetate

C :

Liquid phase concentration (mol/L)

D ax :

Axial dispersion coefficient (m2/min)

H :

Henry’s constant

K eq :

Equilibrium constant

k 1 :

Forward reaction rate constant (L/mol min)

K m :

Mass transfer coefficient (min−1)

b :

Adsorption equilibrium constant

MW :

Molecular weight

L :

Column length (m)

N :

Number

PM :

1-methoxy-2-propanol

PMA :

Propylene glycol methyl ether acetate

q :

Average solid phase concentration (mol/L)

r :

Reaction rate (mol/L min)

SMBR :

Simulated moving bed reactor

t :

Time (min)

u :

Interstitial velocity in the column (m/min)

U L :

Lower bound on volumetric flow rate (mL/min)

U U :

Upper bound on volumetric flow rate (mL/min)

X :

Conversion

x :

Axial coordinate

ε :

Epsilon constraint method

ε T :

Total void fraction

ζ :

Objective function for SMBR optimization

ξ :

Conversion

θ :

Parameter

\(\text{v}\) :

Stoichiometric coefficient

ρ :

Tikhonov regularization weighting factor

φ :

Objective function for parameter estimation

comp:

Component

eq :

Equilibrium

exp:

Experiment

rec:

Recycle stream

i :

Component (EA, PM, PMA, ethanol)

j :

Column number (1, 2, 3, 4)

k :

Experiment data point

m :

Model parameters

D :

Desorbent stream

Ex :

Extract stream

F :

Feed stream

R :

Raffinate stream

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the financial support from the University Partnership Initiative at the Dow Chemical Company.

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Author notes

  1. Yoshiaki Kawajiri

    Present address: Department of Materials Process Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8603, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Shan Tie, Andreas S. Bommarius & Yoshiaki Kawajiri

  2. The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI, USA

    Balamurali Sreedhar, Megan Donaldson, Timothy Frank & Alfred K. Schultz

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  1. Shan Tie
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  2. Balamurali Sreedhar
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  3. Megan Donaldson
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  4. Timothy Frank
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  5. Alfred K. Schultz
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  6. Andreas S. Bommarius
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  7. Yoshiaki Kawajiri
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Correspondence to Yoshiaki Kawajiri.

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Tie, S., Sreedhar, B., Donaldson, M. et al. Experimental evaluation of simulated moving bed reactor for transesterification reaction synthesis of glycol ether ester. Adsorption 25, 795–807 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10450-019-00048-y

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