Evolutional computational fluid dynamics analyses of reactive distillation columns for methyl acetate production process

The hydrodynamics of non-reactive and reactive distillation sieve tray columns are analyzed in this study. The first mentioned task was performed in order to verify the accuracy of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation in modeling the flow behavior of a sieve tray system. For the reactive distillation system, the studies were performed for the 25th reactive tray in the methyl acetate (MeAc) production process. Aspen Plus V9.0 simulation was carried out to determine the clear liquid height on the tray as a function of tray geometry and operating condition. The transient vapor-liquid hydrodynamics on the 25th reactive tray was simulated using CFD techniques involving the turbulence-chemistry interaction (TCI) effects. The predicted chemical products in liquid and vapor phases by Aspen Plus and CFD are of reasonable agreement. Furthermore, the CFD results can deliver more physics in determining localized distributions of the hydrodynamic parameters in the MeAc production process. Information obtained about the location and distribution of the vortex flow can be used to optimize the heat transfer and turbulence mixing.