Modeling and Simulation of pervaporation membrane reactor during levulinic acid esterification process with ethanol to produce ethyl levulinate: computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis

Document Type : Chemistry Article

Authors

1 Chemical engineering department, renewable energy faculty, urmia university of technology, Urmia, Iran

2 chemical engineering department, Urmia university of technology, Urmia, West Azerbaijan, Iran

3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Urmia university of Technology

Abstract

In the present study, the performance of the pervaporation membrane reactor during the esterification reaction of levulinic acid with ethanol to produce ethyl levulinate was modeled based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. Global warming due to the greenhouse effect is now recognized as an important environmental issue. Important factors in the greenhouse effect are the production of sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide, which are produced after the combustion of fuel. Therefore, one of the solutions to solve this problem is a biomass-based additive that leads to better performance of the fuel during combustion and prevents the production of these gases in the atmosphere. Therefore, a symmetric two-dimensional model is provided for the pervaporation membrane reactor (PVMR). In this regard, after modeling and simulating the performance of a fixed bed reactor and comparing its results with laboratory data, it was observed that a good agreement (1% error) was obtained between the theoretical and laboratory results. In order to better understanding of the efficiency of the pervaporation membrane reactor during the esterification reaction, the effect of different operating parameters (reaction temperature, feed flow rate, feed molar ratio and catalyst loading) on the levulinic acid conversion and water removal percentages have been investigated. As a general result in all operating conditions, the pervaporation membrane reactor has performed better than a conventional fixed bed (TR) reactor.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Modeling in Engineering
Volume 19, Issue 67
December 2021
Pages 235-243

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History

  • Receive Date: 27 December 2020
  • Revise Date: 04 April 2021
  • Accept Date: 29 June 2021

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