| abstract |
A reactive distillation method comprises introducing a feed stream to a reactive distillation column, wherein the feed stream comprises ethanol, contacting the feed stream with one or more catalysts in the reactive distillation column during a distillation, and removing butyl acetate during the distillation from the reactive distillation column as a bottoms stream. The feed stream reacts in the presence of the one or more catalysts to produce a reaction product comprising ethyl acetate, butanol, and water, wherein the butanol and the ethyl acetate react to produce a reaction product comprising the butyl acetate. |