Study on simulation of reactive dividing-wall distillation column for methyl acetate hydrolysis

A novel process of single-column reactive distillation process is proposed for the hydrolysis of the methyl acetate,in which the reactive dividing-wall distillation column is used instead of the conventional reactive distillation column and methanol distillation column.The new and the conventional process are simulated with Aspen Plus softwore.The influence of important operating parameters such as the mole ratio of feed water to MeOAc,the reflux ratio,the water and MeOAc feed loacation and the vapour ratio distribution on the performance of the process in the hybrid reactive distillation column are studied.The results show that the energy consumption of the new process can be reduced by 19.6%,and the cost of equipment and operationation can be decreased compared with the conventional reactive distillation process.