Simulation of Leonard-Kemira’sformic acid production process from CO

In this paper, production of formic acid from carbon monoxide (CO) gas is modeled and simulated based on Leonard-Kemira method.Reactors considered in thissimulation are of CSTR type for methanol (MeOH) carbonylation reaction and Equilibrium type for methyl formate hydrolysis. For CSTR reactor the kinetic ofMeOH carbonylation is considered.Changes in the MeOH to CO molar ratio in this process based on reactor volume, were investigated and optimum conditions were determined in order to reduce CO loss and high MeOH conversion. The optimum MeOH/CO ratio was found to be 1.8. Finally two separators and two distillation columns for separating formic acid from the by products are used. The production offormic acid can either have a law grade (80wt%)or a high grade (85-90 wt%) purityupon market demand.

کلیدواژه ها:

Formicacid ، Methanol carbonylation ، Processsimulation ، ReactionKinetics