Ester hydrolysis to alcohol using a combined reactive and extractive distillation with ionic liquids-based mixed solvents.

• Reactive with partial reflux and extractive distillation using ionic liquid-base mixed solvent combined with dividing wall column is a beneficial energy-saving strategy. • REDWC with partial reflux ionic liquid-base mixed solvent could achieve 28.38% TAC savings. • REDWC with partial reflux using ionic liquid mixed solvent could energy-saving 28.81%. The "double carbon" goal puts forward new requirements for the low-carbon development of industrial parks. This work focuses on the process intensification by the combination of reactive and extractive distillation (RED) with ionic liquids-based mixed solvents (ILMS) for ester hydrolysis to alcohol process to improve the distillation process performance. The relative volatility is used as an indicator for the screening of traditional organic solvents. Based on solubility and selectivity, COSMO-RS model is performed for the screening of ionic liquid entrainers. The process performances were compared with the benchmarked RED using dimethyl sulfoxide as entrainer process according to simulation results. RED with partial reflux using ILMS process could reduce energy consumption and TAC by 26.44% and 24.66%, respectively. Further, the combination of reactive distillation column with partial reflux and dividing wall column extractive distillation process (REDWC) using ILMS can reduce energy consumption and TAC by 28.81% and 28.38%, respectively. Compared with the benchmark process, the novel RDWCED process has excellent energy, economic and environmental performance, and has broad industrial application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]