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[teikhongg]

Dear all,

 

As a third year in an engineering school, I'm in charged of designing a reactor which produces cinnamaldehyde using the aldol condensation process between benzaldehyde and acetaldehyde. Since this is a process not many talk about, the kinetics proved to be difficult to find but we have to use all the knowledge that we have learned and able to find to design a reactor. The inlet will be benzaldehyde, acetaldehyde, sodium hydroxide solution as a catalyst and addition of benzoic acid to neutralize the sodium hydroxide solution after the main reaction. The reactions are as below:

 

Acetaldehyde + benzaldehyde = cinnamaldehyde + water (main reaction)

Acetaldehyde + cinnamaldehyde = 5-phenyl-2,4-pentadienal + water (side)

Benzaldehyde + ozygen = benzoic acid (side)

Benzoic acid + Naoh = Sodium benzoate + water (side)

 

During the PFD part of the design, my team and I decided to use the semi-batch reactor to neutralize the sodium hydroxide as well after the main reaction inside the reactor. My question is, has this kind of thing been done before? Because we thought of using the reactor as a neutralizer as well to cut capital cost. Can this be done or is there a reason why the neutralizing should be done separately in another neutralizer? If there are any more information that you need to know please let me know and I will provide them. Thank you.

 

Teik Hong

Edited by teikhongg, 27 March 2013 - 12:35 AM.