Quote Contents:

• Start-up 1994
• Capacity is 9,000 TPY
• Currently still operating but very low capacity ~2 tons/year
• Acetaldehyde is intermediate to produce acetic acid

The process for conversion of ethanol to acetaldehyde is the transition of ethanol vapor on a fixed bed reactor with catalyst based on copper.

Ethanol from the top of the distillation column D-1350 is fed to reactor D-1150 A / B.
The gas mixture leaving the reactor is condensed in the product E-1170 and hydrogen before being extracted from the process is washed with tap water at low temperature, in column D-1200, to condense and absorb the acetaldehyde in the gas stream.

The condensate is then sent to the distillation tower D-1300 where at the top, remove the acetaldehyde and pumped to the tower base D-1350 that recovers unreacted ethyl alcohol, which returns to step reaction.

At the base of D-1350 column liquid effluent is extracted.

In an intermediate plate in column D-1350 is extracted mixture containing ethanol, butanol and other products. This mixture is stored and monthly we recover the ethanol.
 
Main reaction:

             C2H6O                                C2H4O                                          H2
             Ethanol                          Acetaldehyde               +             Hydrogen

Main Equipment

B-1120 A/B       CENTRIFUGAL FAN 100 HP
F-1390               CARBON STEEL HORIZONTAL TANK CAP. 11000.0 LTS.
D-1150 A/B       REACTOR OF ACETALDEHYDE CS DIAM. 2814X4500 MM.
E-1160 A/B       CARBON STEEL HEAT EXCHANGER SURFACE 95,37 M2
F-1242              HYDRAULIC GUARD IN CS CAP. 1100.0 LTS.
E-1170              HEAT EXCHANGER, 316 L SS, SURFACE 170,0 M2.
E-1155              STAINLESS STEEL HEAT EXCHANGE SURFACE 5.1 M2

D-1200             STAINLESS STEE PACKED COLUMN CAP. 25000,0 LTS.
D-1300             STAINLESS STEEL SIEVE TRAY COLUMN CAP. 24000.0 LTS.
D-1350             STAINLESS STEEL SIEVE TRAY COLUMN CAP. 31000.0 LTS.

Product Properties