1 INTRODUCTION

Ethyl ethanoate is an industrially important bulk chemical1 used primarily as a solvent in the paints, coatings and inks industry. Commercial synthesis of ethyl ethanoate was until recently limited to esterification of acetic acid, the Tischenko reaction of ethanal and addition of ethene to acetic acid. Davy Process Technology has commercialised a process based on the dehydrogenation of ethanol2 to synthesise ethyl ethanoate without the need for acetic acid or ethanal. The process consists of 3 linked unit operations - ethanol dehydrogenation to produce an impure ethyl ethanoate stream, selective hydrogenation of this steam to remove a troublesome by-product, and finally a novel distillation scheme that separates pure (99.95%+) ethyl ethanoate from a mixture of ethyl ethanoate, ethanol, higher alcohols and esters. The development of the dehydrogenation and selective hydrogenation reactions, and some aspects of the operation of the selective hydrogenation reactor at a commercial scale are discussed.

Figure 1: DPT ethanol to ethyl ethanoate unit operations

2 THE ETHYL ETHANOATE FROM ETHANOL PROCESS