Experimental study of the optimization of a semi-batch reactor

Abstract

In general, the productivity and the product quality of batch or semi-batch reactor can be improved by finding the optimal temperature trajectory. Instead of numerical techniques, the minimization of the reaction time of the semi-batch transesterification reactor is treated by analysis and qualitative consideration in this thesis. The optimization of the transesterification or esterification stage, the first stage of the production of PET(polyethylene terephthalate) is performed by using a simple kinetic model of the main reaction, the qualitative consideration of the side reactions and the flash distillation model. The process constraints were found from the several experimental observations. A simple time optimal temperature trajectory was proposed. The proposed time optimal temperature trajectory reduces the batch time by 30-45 min within the process constraints. Additionally, the kinetic model of the transesterification reaction of dimethylene terephthalate with ethylene glycol was developed based on the total mass. It has an analytical solution, and the kinetic parameters, $K_{a,o}$ and $E_a$ were found from isothermal and non-isothermal kinetic analyses of the experimental data. The total mass based kinetic model with flash distillation model well represents the transesterification reaction.