Simulation and optimization of reaction-distillation coupling process for methyl methacrylate production
An overfeeding reaction-distillation coupling process(SRC)was designed to obtain high efficiency,as the existing unfavorable boiling points sequence in the reaction system of esterification causes low efficiency.For the esterification system of methyl methacrylate(MMA)production,the overfeeding SRC with excess methanol(CS1-SRC)and methacrylic acid(CS2-SRC)were established.The effects of raw material excess ratio,side-reactor number(NR)and extraction water dosage in CS2-SRC on the performance of energy consumption were systematically studied.The designed CS2-SRC process shows advantage under the design conditions of:reference reactant 1.28×105 mol.h-1,total conversion≥99.5%and wMMA≥99.5%.The optimal parameters are:methacrylic acid excess ratio 1.2,NR=2,methacrylic acid distribution ratio 0.75:0.25,extraction water excess ratio 2.42 and reboiler duty 3 027 kW.Compared with CS1-SRC,the reboiler duty of CS2-SRC is reduced by 39.67%.