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Vacuum distillation Process Flowsheets & Simulations

Explore 2 validated, solved Vacuum distillation simulation flowsheets in MaximaLabs — real components: methyl_palmitate, methyl_stearate, methanol, water, lactic_acid, methyl_lactate. Open any one directly in your browser.

Solved via: PENG-ROBINSON.

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Vaccol
C16
C18
Oleochemicals plant, Port Klang, Malaysia

Fatty-ester vacuum fractionation

Biodiesel methyl esters (C16 / C18) split at 0.05 bar — vacuum keeps the bottoms under 515 K; near-total C16 recovery overhead and ~98% C18 in the bottoms (the two components' relative volatility caps bottoms purity there — more stages/reflux do not push it further). From the ChemSep casebook (Fatty_Acids, as methyl esters).

4 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

17 0

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FEED
Ester Reactor
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btms
Vacuum Column
Lights Product
Methyl Lactate Product
Reference model (CN104628563A)

Patent benchmark: methyl lactate synthesis (CN104628563A)

Real patent replication, not an invented process: CN104628563A's acid-catalyzed lactate-ester route -- lactic acid esterified with excess methanol, then purified by vacuum distillation -- reproduced here as a continuous flowsheet. The patent's own worked methyl-lactate example reports 98.8% esterification conversion and 99.6% product purity at 120 degC/3h; this flowsheet's reactor conversion is set directly to the patent's reported 98.8% (not fitted), and the vacuum column (0.2 atm, matching the patent's vacuum-distillation purification step) reaches 98.75% methyl lactate purity in the bottoms -- within roughly 1 percentage point of the patent's claimed 99.6%, the gap being this flowsheet's own finite stage count/reflux rather than a fitted parameter. See the Patent Benchmarks docs page for the full validation table and citation.

5 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

19 0

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