Single phase ester feed for hydrogenolysis

摘要

The process involves esterifying ethanol and acetic acid to produce an esterification product that is in a single phase that is directly reduced, by hydrogenolysis, to produce ethanol. The single phase is not capable of separating. Feeding a single phase feed stream reduces the separation of the esterification product. Hydrogen may be fed to the esterification reactor that operates at a high pressure that is substantially similar to or greater than the hydrogenolysis reactor.

主权项

1. A method of producing ethanol comprising:
esterifying acetic acid and ethanol in a first reaction zone to produce an effluent that comprises from 20 wt. % to 70 wt. % ethanol and is in a single phase, wherein the first reaction zone is operated in the vapor phase; adding hydrogen to the effluent to form a feed stream; reacting the feed stream in a second reaction zone under conditions to reduce ethyl acetate to ethanol to produce a crude reactor product; and recovering ethanol from the crude reactor product.