Reactants vinyl acetate monomer process

Leap A process for making vinyl acetate monomer. It uses a fluidized bed of a new catalyst in powder form the reactants are acetic acid, ethylene, and oxygen. Developed by BP Amoco and first operated in Hull, England, in 2001. The catalyst is a supported gold-palladium alloy made by... 

The process considered in this chapter involved the production of vinyl acetate monomer. It features many unit operations, many components, nonideal phase equilibrium, unusual reaction kinetics, two recycle streams, and three fresh reactant makeup streams. 

Emulsion polymerization reactors are made of stainless steel and are normally equipped with top-entry stirrers and ports for addition of reactants. Control of the reaction exotherm and particle size distribution of the polymer latex is achieved most readily by semibatch (also called semicontinuous) processes, in which some or all of the reactants are fed into the reactor during the course of the polymerization. Examples are given in Chapter 8. In vinyl acetate copolymerizations, a convenient monomer addition rate is such that keeps the vinyl acetate/water azeotrope retluxing. at about 70°C. 

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