We are a group of Chemical Engineering undergraduate students, at Instituto Superior Técnico, in Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, in Portugal, and we are doing our Final Project under the theme: Recycling poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) that concerns the recovery of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and also the continuous manufacture of acrylic casting sheets. The process that we are studying suggests the distillation of the recovered liquid with the composition that follows:
BP (ºC) Mass flow (kg/hr) Mole flow (kg/hr) Methanol 64.7 0.100 0.003 Methyl propionate 71.8 0.996 0.011 Methyl acrylate 80 0.299 0.003 Methyl isobutyrate 92.6 1.996 0.019 Water 100 8.095 0.449 MMA 101 965.245 9.641 Butyl acrylate 148 4.599 0.036
We hope to achieve a liquid with 99.9% (mol) purity of MMA and a water content of 500 ppm. The problems are:
- Formation of azeotropes between MMA/Water and MMA/Methanol;
- The reduced difference of water and MMA boiling points.
We tried to simulate the distillation column on ASPEN, but without success. If some one knows the type of column and distillation that should be used and how to simulate it in ASPEN we would be very appreciated and we guarantee that the research is for academic purpose.