Dynamic Simulation of Reactive Batch Distillation Column for Ethyl Acetate Synthesis

A detailed mathematical dynamic model of reactive batch distillation column is formulated for ethyl acetate synthesis and presented in terms of differential and algebraic equations (DAEs). These DAEs are solved using fourth order Runge-Kutta method in MATLAB® to obtain the detailed column dynamics. The simulation results provide the dynamics of reboiler and distillate compositions, reboiler temperature, ethyl acetate purity in the accumulated distillate and conversion of the reactants. These results are analyzed to derive the optimum operating policy, i.e., reflux ratio and batch time.