Simulation study on the esterification process in the production of PETD /
Norhayati Abdullah
- Kuantan, Pahang : UMP, 2007
- 90 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm.
Thesis (Master of Engineering (Chemical)) -- Universiti Malaysia Pahang - 2007
PETD is an important industrial varnish which reqUlres relatively complicated processing particularly the separation process in order to produce it. At this meantime, there are lacks of research conducted on producing PETD in Malaysia. Therefore, an initiative was taken to carry out this research in order to come out with a method of producing PETD. At present, the best and preferred routes to produce PETD is via esterification reaction of pentaerythritol and dodecanoic acid. The reaction system involved is found to be suitable for the application of hybrid system which consists of reaction batch, flash column and membrane module. However, it is not commercially attractive in view of the low conversion and PETD purity attainable using the option. Through parametric analysis, it was learned that the performance of PETD esterification significantly improved at 2: 1 feed ratio which operates at 180°C batch temperature, optimum flash pressure and temperature to avoid excessive presence of water in bottom stream of distillate were found to be 250°C at O.9atm. Capillary size and length which contributes to final PETD purity was identified to be at average of O.0409cm2 and 400cm respectively. It is hoped that this research study is opens up a possibility for commercialization of PETD esterification reaction as the product purity and conversion achieved through the configuration proposed is considered attractive. In addition. by utilizing the proposed configuration, significant cost saving can be achieved as this process only requires normal flash method embedded with simple membrane module. Meanwhile parametric analysis carried out earlier in this research work has been able to explain some of the factors that limit the performance of this hybrid system. -Author