Simulation Study on Operations Aspects of a Reactive Distillation Column for Production ofEthyl Acetate Using ASPEN PLUS™ and ASPEN DYNAMIC™

Ethyl acetate is a widely used organic compound in manufacturing of printing inks,
paints, coatings, perfume, film, food additives, pharmaceutical and others due to its low
boiling point. There were numerous research carried out in different areas related with
ethyl acetate production. In recent years, due to the increasing trend in ethyl acetate
demand, reactive distillation that combined reaction process and distillation process
technique has been used for ethyl acetate production studies. However, most of the
researchers focus on column configuration and control of the column. There are limited
studies being carried out on starting up a reactive distillation column in dynamic
simulation.