Effects of Feed Stage on the Product Composition of a Reactive Distillation Process: A Case Study of trans-2-Pentene Metathesi

Investigating the effects of feed stage on the purity of the top and bottom products obtained from a reactive distillation process used to produce trans-2-butene and trans-2-hexene by employing a metathesis reaction has been carried out in this work. The investigation was done by developing a model of the process with the aid of Aspen Plus of the reactive distillation process using RadFrac column that had 21 stages including the condenser and the reboiler. The developed Aspen Plus model of the process was simulated with Wilson model as the property package, and the feed of the process was passed into the column at a temperature and a pressure of 25 oC and 1 atm respectively at the rate of 0.035 L/min. The metathesis reaction occurring in the reaction (middle) of the column was an equilibrium type, and its equilibrium constant was calculated from Gibbs energy. After developing the olefin metathesis reactive distillation process model using the Aspen Plus, it was simulated by varying the feed stage from stage 2 (the stage below the condenser) to 21 (the reboiler). The results of the simulations showed that the highest mole fraction of the products (trans-2-butene and trans-2-hexene) were obtainable from the reactive distillation process when the feed (trans-2-pentene) was fed at the reaction section of the column. Therefore, it has been discovered that the feed stage of trans-2-pentene was affecting the purities of the trans-2-butene and trans-2-hexene obtained as the main products of the metathesis process considered because as the feed stage was varied, their mole fractions were also discovered to vary.