ETHYL LACTATE PRODUCTION BY HYBRID PROCESSES: DETERMINATION OF PHASE DIAGRAMS AND EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE OF ORGANOPHILIC PERVAPORATION MEMBRANES

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1 ETHYL LACTATE PRODUCTION BY HYBRID PROCESSES: DETERMINATION OF PHASE DIAGRAMS AND EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE OF ORGANOPHILIC PERVAPORATION MEMBRANES A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCES OF THE MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY MİNE İNAL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AUGUST

2 Approval of the Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences Prof. Dr. Canan Özgen Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Prof. Dr. Timur Doğu Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis and for the degree of Master of Science. Prof. Dr. Levent Yılmaz Supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gürkan Karakaş Co-Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Türker Gürkan Prof. Dr. Timur Doğu Prof. Dr. Levent Yılmaz Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gürkan Karakaş Asst. Prof. Dr. Nihal Aydoğan 2

3 ABSTRACT ETHYL LACTATE PRODUCTION BY HYBRID PROCESSES: DETERMINATION OF PHASE DIAGRAMS AND EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE OF ORGANOPHILIC PERVAPORATION MEMBRANES INAL, Mine MS., Department of Chemical Engineering Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Levent YILMAZ Co-supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gürkan KARAKAŞ August 2003, 126 Pages Ethyl lactate is a promising, and environmentally benign chemical, which requires efficient separation techniques to overcome the equilibrium limitations in its production. Pervaporation based hybrid systems are successful in these type of equilibrium limited reactions, where product and/or by-product are removed from reaction medium by pervaporation unit(s) so as to drive reaction to completion. iii

4 For the production of ethyl lactate four possible semi-batch hybrid systems were previously proposed. However, in order to select the suitable hybrid system within the proposed layouts phase equilibrium and reaction kinetics of the system must be well defined in addition to the performance data of the pervaporation membranes. Therefore, vapor pressure curve of ethyl lactate, VLE curves of ethanol-ethyl lactate and ethyl lactate-water were determined and performances of commercial hydrophobic membranes were investigated experimentally for the separation of ethanol-ethyl lactate mixtures. As a result of vapor pressure and VLE experiments, azeotrope was observed at 71wt% of water for ethyl lactate-water binary mixture at 80mmHg pressure. Furthermore, dependence of vapor composition on pressure was found to be slight for ethanol-ethyl lactate mixtures. Two commercial hydrophobic membranes, and an organoselective one were used in the separation of ethyl lactate-ethanol mixtures. It is found that hydrophobic membranes have sufficient fluxes and reasonable selectivities. Moreover, it is observed that as temperature increase flux increases and selectivity decreases. Finally, it is concluded that it would be possible to produce ethyl lactate by using the previously proposed integrated PV-esterification reactor systems. Keywords: Hybrid systems, Pervaporation-Esterification Coupling, Ethyl lactate- Separation, Pervaporation, Commercial Membranes iv

5 ÖZ HİBRİD PROSESLERLE ETİL LAKTAT ÜRETİMİ: FAZ DİYAGRAMLARININ ELDESİ VE ORGANOFİLİK PERVAPORASYON MEMBRANLARININ PERFORMANSLARININ DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ INAL, Mine Yüksek Lisans, Kimya Mühendisliği Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Levent YILMAZ Ortak Tez Yöneticisi: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gürkan KARAKAŞ Ağustos 2003, 126 Sayfa Etil laktat, çevreye zararlı olmayan, ancak üretimi için etkili ve ucuz yöntem geliştirilmesi gerekli olan bir çözücüdür. Pervaporasyon içeren hibrid sistemler, etil laktat gibi esterlerin üretiminde dönüşümü artırmak için kullanılan başarılı yöntemlerden biridir. Bu yöntemde, reaktör ortamından suyu ve/veya etil laktat ı ayırarak, reaksiyon ürünler tarafına kaydırılmakta böylece dönüşüm artırılmaktadır. v

6 Etil laktat üretimi için dört adet pervaporasyon içeren hibrid sistemi daha önceki çalışmada geliştirilmiştir. Ancak, önerilen bu sistemler arasında en uygun olanına karar verebilmek için reaksiyon karışımlarını içeren sıvı-buhar faz diyagramlarına, reaksiyon kinetik bilgisine, ve pervaporasyon membranlarının performanslarının değerlendirilmesine ihtiyaç vardır. Dolayısıyla, bu çalışmada öncelikle etanol-etil laktat ve etil laktat-su karışımlarının sıvı-buhar faz diyagramları bulunmuş ve daha sonra hidrophobik pervaporasyon membranlarının etil laktat-etanol karışımlarını ayırmadaki performansları araştırılmıştır. Etil laktat-su karışımında, 80 mmhg basınç altında, %71 ağırlıkça su konsantrasyonunda azeotrop bulunmuştur. Bununla beraber etanol-etil laktat karışımlarında, basıncın buhar kompozisyonuna olan etkisinin az olduğu gözlemlenmiştir. Etil laktat-etanol karışımlarının ayırılmasında iki adet hidrofobik ve bir adet organik seçici, ticari membranlar kullanılmıştır. Hidrofobik membranların, yeterli akı ve seçicilik değerlerine sahip olduğu gözlenmiştir. Bununla birlikte sıcaklık arttırıldığında, akının arttığı, seçiciliğin ise düştüğü gözlenmiştir. Son olarak etil laktat ın pervaporasyon içeren hibrid sistemler ile üretiminin mümkün olabileceği sonucuna varılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Hibrid Sistemler, Pervaporasyon-Esterifikasyon Entegrasyonu, Etil laktat-etanol ayırımı, Pervaporasyon, Ticari Membranlar vi

7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are several people I wish to acknowledge for making this thesis possible. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Professor Yılmaz and Assoc. Prof. Karakaş for their guidance. I would like to thank TÜBİTAK, National Science Foundation Council of Turkey, for financial support, under project contract number MİSAG-151. I also would like to thank all of the staff of Chemical Engineering Department, especially İsa Çağlayan and Nevzat Bekçi for their valuable contributions to this work. I also thank past group members, whose work I have built upon: Emin Okumuş, Tansel Şener, and Sibel Korkut. And last but not least, I wish to express the deepest gratitude to my family for their caring and support. vii

8 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii ÖZ Vv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vvii TABLE OF CONTENTS vviii LIST OF TABLES. Vx LIST OF FIGURES..vxi LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS.. vxiii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION Industrially Important Properties of Ethyl lactate and Its Uses Production of Ethyl Lactate by Conventional Esterification Process and The Benefits of Proposed Novel Process Pervaporation Based Hybrid Systems Proposed Hybrid Systems LITERATURE SURVEY Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium Vapor pressure and Boiling Point of Pure Components Measurement Methodologies of Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium Determination for Multicomponent Mixtures Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium of Reactive Systems Pervaporation: Theory and Applications Performance Criteria for Pervaporation..27 viii

9 APPENDIX B UNSTEADY STATE DATA 1. Hydrophobic membranes, CMX-GF-010-D and PERVAP1060 in the separation of ethyl lactate-ethanol mixtures Date: Membrane: pervap 1060 concentration: 5%ethanol-lactate # (min)(g/m /min) in permeate

10 Date: Membrane: pervap 1060 concentration: 50%ethanol-lactate # (min) (g/m 2 /min) in permeate Date: concentration: 1%ethanol-lactate # (min) (g/m 2 /min) in permeate

11 Date: concentration: 2.5%ethanol-lactate # (min)(g/m /min) in permeate Date: concentration: 5%ethanol-lactate Sample Time Flux wt. Fraction # (min) (g/m 2 /min) in permeate

12 Date: concentration: 10%ethanol-lactate # (min) (g/m 2 /min) in permeate Date: concentration: 30%ethanol-lactate # (min)(g/m /min) in permeate Date: concentration: 50%ethanol-lactate # (min)(g/m /min) in permeate

13 2. Organoselective Membrane, PERVAP2256 in the separation of ethyl lactate-ethanol mixtures Date: Membrane: pervap 2256 concentration: 1%ethanol-lactate # (min) (g/m 2 /min) in permeate Date: Membrane: pervap 2256 concentration: 5%ethanol-lactate Smp time flux p.conc selectivity

14 Date: Membrane: pervap 2256 concentration: 30%ethanol-lactate # (min) (g/m 2 /min) in permeate Date: Membrane: Pervap 2256 concentration: 50%ethanol-lactate # (min) (g/m 2 /min) in permeate

15 3. Hydrophobic Membrane, CMX-GF-010-D in the separation of ethyl lactateethanol mixtures at 50 0 C Date: concentration: 1 %ethanol-lactate T =50 0 C # (min)(g/m /min) in permeate Date: concentration: 23 %ethanol-lactate T =50 0 C # (min) (g/m 2 /min) in permeate