Ethyl acetate production and purification

A system for producing high purity ethyl acetate from ethanol, the system comprising:

• a heater, wherein the heater is configured to heat an inlet ethanol stream;
• at least one reactor comprising a dehydrogenation catalyst, an ethanol inlet configured to pass ethanol in the inlet ethanol stream from the heater over the dehydrogenation catalyst to produce a product stream comprising ethyl acetate and impurities;
• an extraction unit configured to receive the product stream from the at least one reactor, contact a liquid solvent feed stream with the product stream, provide an extract stream comprising a portion of the impurities in the product stream, and provide a purified product stream, wherein the liquid solvent feed stream comprises an extracting agent and a defoamer;
• and
• a stripping unit configured to receive the extract stream from the extraction unit, separate the impurities from the extract stream, provide an outlet impurities stream, and provide a regenerated solvent stream back to the extraction unit as at least a portion of the liquid solvent feed stream.

A method of producing ethyl acetate, the method comprising:

• feeding a feed stream comprising ethanol to one or more reactors;
• contacting the ethanol with a catalyst in the one or more reactors;
• producing ethyl acetate and one or more byproducts during the dehydrogenation to produce an effluent stream comprising the ethyl acetate and the one or more byproducts;
• separating a portion of the one or more byproducts to produce a purified product stream, wherein the solvent comprises an extracting agent and a defoamer;
• and
• separating at least a portion of the byproducts from the purified product stream using one or more distillation columns.