Process Simulation and Design of Acrylic Acid Production

This chapter investigated an integrated flowsheet with recycle streams for the production of acrylic acid. Many typical process units appeared in an integrated process were simulated using Aspen Plus. The simulated process units include a fluidized-bed reactor, cooler, flash drum, gas absorber, extraction tower, distillation column, and decanter. As compared to the designs in open literature, this proposed integrated flowsheet contains two important modifications. Firstly, more steam has been introduced into the reaction section as heat carrier to make the operating condition more realistic. Secondly, the separation section of the process has been improved by utilizing liquid-liquid extraction to save energy of a diluted mixture with large amounts of water.