Reactive Separation Systems for Recovery or Valorization of Carboxylic Acids from Dilute Streams
AssigneeDioxycle
InventorsJonathan Maistrello, Raphaël Sanjuan, Paul S. Wallace, Georges Matta
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
This disclosure relates to systems and methods for producing purified chemical products from aqueous carboxylic acids. A disclosed method includes introducing carboxylic acid and alcohol streams into a reactive distillation esterification column, reacting the carboxylic acid and alcohol to form an ester, removing the ester stream from the column while it is reacting, and processing the ester stream in a downstream purification system to purify the product.
Claims30
A method for producing a purified chemical product from an aqueous carboxylic acid-containing stream, comprising:
- introducing an aqueous feed stream comprising a carboxylic acid into a reactive distillation esterification column;
- introducing an alcohol stream into the reactive distillation esterification column;
- esterifying the carboxylic acid with the alcohol within the reactive distillation esterification column to form an ester;
- removing an ester-containing vapor stream from the reactive distillation esterification column as the ester is formed;
- and
- processing the ester-containing vapor stream in a downstream purification system to produce the purified chemical product.
A system for producing a purified chemical product from an aqueous carboxylic acid-containing stream, comprising:
- a reactive distillation esterification column comprising:
- an aqueous feed inlet configured to receive an aqueous stream comprising a carboxylic acid, an alcohol inlet configured to receive an alcohol, a reaction zone within the column in which the carboxylic acid reacts with the alcohol to form an ester, an overhead vapor outlet configured to withdraw an ester-containing vapor stream, and a bottoms outlet configured to discharge a bottoms stream;
- and
- a downstream purification system fluidly connected to the overhead vapor outlet that receives the ester-containing vapor stream and produces the purified chemical product.
A method for purifying a carboxylic acid from an aqueous stream, comprising:
- producing an ester-containing stream by reacting an aqueous carboxylic acid stream with an alcohol stream in a reactive distillation esterification column;
- hydrolyzing at least a portion of the ester-containing stream to produce a hydrolysis stream comprising the carboxylic acid and the alcohol;
- recovering a carboxylic acid product stream having a greater concentration than the aqueous carboxylic acid stream;
- and
- recycling at least a portion of the alcohol produced during hydrolysis to the reactive distillation esterification column.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.