Process for the Production of Ethyl Esters

Develop an economical process for the production of ethyl esters. 

A higher catalyst activity is necessary to lo ver the reaction temperature, vhich in turn will allow the operating pressure to be lowered, thus improving the energy requirements of the process. Such desired catalysts are under development at IFF. They can be retrofitted in existing units. 

The heterogeneous process has potentially more flexibility vfith respect to the purity of the starting feed. Provided the impurities introduced with the oil have no detrimental effect on the catalyst activity (that can be if necessary protected by a small guard reactor), good purity esters and glycol can still be obtained, due to the more efficient separation section. 

Replacement of fossil-derived methanol by ethanol is an interesting objective  

Heterogeneous catalysis should be a better way to produce ethyl esters, provided the catalyst improvement looked for in the case of methyl ester is successful. In any case, the process will be less competitive and the product more expensive. 

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