Apparatus and method for esterification reaction

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12420255-B2
Application number	US-202017608082-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 18, 2020
Priority date	Sep 26, 2019
Publication date	Sep 23, 2025
Grant date	Sep 23, 2025

Abstract

An esterification reaction apparatus and an esterification reaction method, the esterification reaction apparatus comprising a reaction tank having an accommodation part, in which a raw material containing carboxylic acid and alcohol is accommodated, a heating unit configured to individually heat partition regions that are partitioned into N regions in a vertical direction of the accommodation part, and a controller configured to control the heating unit so that only the partition regions in which a liquid is accommodated among the N partition regions are heated, thereby performing an esterification reaction of the raw material.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An esterification reaction apparatus, comprising:
a reaction tank having an accommodation part in which a raw material containing carboxylic acid and alcohol is accommodated;
a heating unit configured to individually heat partition regions that are partitioned into N regions in a vertical direction of the accommodation part, where N is an integer of 2 or more; and
a controller configured to control the heating unit so that only the partition regions in which a liquid of the raw material is accommodated among the N partition regions are heated,
thereby performing an esterification reaction of the raw material,
wherein the heating unit comprises N heat source supply parts, which are respectively provided in the N partition regions,
wherein each of the heat source supply parts comprises a heat source supply tube therein which has the form of a coil and through which a high-temperature fluid passes, wherein the high-temperature fluid is a heat source,
wherein a coil pitch of the heat source supply tube disposed in the partition region, which is disposed at the lowermost portion, among the N partition regions is less than a coil pitch of the heat source supply tubes, which are disposed in the remaining regions.

2. The esterification reaction apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the heat source supply parts comprise a plurality of heat source supply tubes wound in the form of the coil, which have different winding widths from a center axis in the vertical direction of the accommodation part from each other.

3. The esterification reaction apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of heat source supply tubes are provided in a shape of being wound multiple times around the center axis in the vertical direction of the accommodation part in the reaction tank.

4. The esterification reaction apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the high-temperature fluid comprises steam.

5. The esterification reaction apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a sensing unit configured to sense a liquid-accommodated state in the N partition regions,
wherein the sensing unit is configured to transmit information of the sensed liquid-accommodated state to the controller.

6. The esterification reaction apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the sensing unit comprises a liquid level sensor disposed in the reaction tank to measure an accommodation height (level) of the liquid accommodated in the accommodation part.

7. The esterification reaction apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the controller is configured to determine whether the liquid is accommodated in each of the N partition regions of the accommodation part through sensed accommodation level values of the accommodated liquid sensed through the sensing unit so that the high-temperature fluid is supplied to the heat source supply tubes of the partition regions which are determined to contain the liquid among the N partition regions, and supplying the high-temperature fluid to the heat source supply tubes of the partition regions which are determined to contain no liquid among the N partition regions is blocked.

Assignees

• Lg Chemical Ltd

Inventors

• Choo Yeon Uk
• Lee Sung Kyu
• Jun Hyoung
• Kim Hyun Kyu
• Jin Chan Hyu
• Park Jin Sung

Classifications

• B01J2219/00159

  controlling multiple zones along the direction of flow, e.g. pre-heating and after-cooling · CPC title

• B01J2219/00083

  Coils · CPC title

• B01J19/18

  Stationary reactors having moving elements inside (B01J19/08, B01J19/26 take precedence) · CPC title

• C07C67/08 Primary

  by reacting carboxylic acids or symmetrical anhydrides with the hydroxy or O-metal group of organic compounds · CPC title

• B01J2219/00182

  controlling the level of reactants in the reactor vessel · CPC title