Production of Butyric Anhydride Using Single Reactive Distillation Column with Internal Material Circulation

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Colleagues.

Reviewer is very impressed by the presented article, in particular by expressed practical and economic orientation, the latter takes place, in my opinion, quite rare.

Some remarks:

line 96. "kn+, kn-" should be indexed. line 96, 97. "L·mol-1·min-1" also should be indexed, maybe replase "L" to cubic decimeter. Reviewer interested in, whether it is possible to extend the developed algorithm  to the other systems with reversible chemical reactions with known temperature dependencies of rate constants (Arrhenius equations). If the algorithm is fundamentally general, it maybe appropriate to include a reference to the universality of the algorithm in the article abstract.

Author Response

Please see the attachment( response to reviewer 1 comments)

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript considers the production of butyric anhydride by reactive distillation, claiming to use a single column instead of the (claimed to be traditional) two columns arrangement. The subject is interesting and within the scope of the Processes Journal. Based on the comments below, I think that it can be accepted after a careful revision.

The starting and core reference of this work seems to be reference (9). I thought that it was good idea starting by reading it. And I had a surprise: the reference should be “Li, B.-C & Han, X.-P & Zhang, W.-L & Geng, C.-X. (2017). Simulation and experimental research on butyric anhydride synthesis by reactive distillation. Huaxue Gongcheng/Chemical Engineering (China). 45. 72-78. 10.3969/j.issn.1005-9954.2017.05.016” and not as referenced in the manuscript! Moreover, and apparently, it is in Chinese and I cannot read Chinese! The formulas of the anhydrides, in equations (1) and (2) are wrong. If the rates of reaction were defined by the temporal derivatives, as shown in equations (3) and (4), in steady state nothing would be produced, since the time derivatives are zero in steady state! I understand that “The implementation of internal circulation of excess reactant depends on tuning condenser duty or reboiler duty of the SRDC”, as claimed in point 4.2. This is true when simulating the process. Note that, when simulating, if I understood well, two separate columns are considered in ASPEN in each case (excess of acetic anhydride or of butyric acid). The question is: how can it be experimentally implemented, just with one column? English should be carefully revised throughout, since some misprints were found.

Author Response

Please see the attachment(response to reviewer2 comments)

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf