Aspen Plus Simulation of Saponification of Ethyl Acetate in the Presence of Sodium Hydroxide in a Plug Flow Reactor

This work presents the modelling and simulation of
saponification of ethyl acetate in the presence of sodium hydroxide in
a plug flow reactor using Aspen Plus simulation software. Plug flow
reactors are widely used in the industry due to the non-mixing
property. The use of plug flow reactors becomes significant when
there is a need for continuous large scale reaction or fast reaction.
Plug flow reactors have a high volumetric unit conversion as the
occurrence for side reactions is minimum. In this research Aspen Plus
V8.0 has been successfully used to simulate the plug flow reactor. In
order to simulate the process as accurately as possible HYSYS Peng-
Robinson EOS package was used as the property method. The results
obtained from the simulation were verified by the experiment carried
out in the EDIBON plug flow reactor module. The correlation
coefficient (r2) was 0.98 and it proved that simulation results
satisfactorily fit for the experimental model. The developed model
can be used as a guide for understanding the reaction kinetics of a
plug flow reactor.

• U. P. L. Wijayarathne
• K. C. Wasalathilake

• Aspen Plus
• Modelling
• Plug Flow Reactor
• Simulation.

[1] Fogler, H. Scott. Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering. : Prentice
Hall Professional Technical Reference, 2006. ISBN 23-13-047394-4 .
[2] Modeling and Simulation of Ethyl Acetate Reactive Distillation Column
Using Aspen Plus. Ahmad, SohailRasool Lone & Syed Akhlaq. Issue 8,:
International Journal Of Scientific & Engineering Research, 2012, Vol.
Volume 3. ISSN 2229-5518.
[3] Abatement of Fluorine inside a Fluidized Bed Reactor Using Aspen Plus
Simulation. Sahoo, HarjeetNath and Abanti. Odisha : International
Conference on Frontiers in Chemical Engineering, 2013.
[4] Simulation of Coal Gasification Process using ASPEN PLUS.
Ahmedabad: International Conference on Current Trends in Technology,
2011.
[5] Equipment, Edibon Technical Teaching. Computer Controlled Chemical
Reactors Training System with SCADA and PID Control. Madrid:
Edibon International, 2013.
[6] Walker, J. A Method for Determining Velocities of Saponification:
Royal Society of London, 1906.
[7] Carl Garland, Joseph Nibler , David Shoemaker. Experiments in
Physical Chemistry. : McGraw-Hill, 2003.
[8] Peter Atkins, Julio de Paula. Atkins' Physical Chemistry. Eighth Edition.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 0-7167-8759-8.
[9] Analytical, Radiometer. Conductivity Theory and Practice. France :
Radiometer Analytical SAS, 2004.
[10] Denbihh, K. G., and J. C. R. Turner, Chemical Reactor Theory, 2nd
edition, Cambridge University, 1971
[11] Levenspiel, O., Chemical Reaction Engineering, 2nd edition, John Wiley
and Sons, 1972.
[12] Smith, J. M., Chemical Engineering Kinetics, 3rd edition, McGraw-Hill,
1981
[13] CRISON Instruments, S.A. Controladores CM38-CM38P Manual del
usuario. : CRISON Instruments, S.A., 1997
[14] Aspen Technology, Inc. Aspen Engineering V8.0. Massachusetts: Aspen
Technology, Inc., 2012.
[15] Wittrup, Prof. K. Dane. Chemical and Biological Reaction Engineering,
Spring 2007. ocw.mit.edu. (Online) 2007. (Cited: 05 30, 2014.)