Determining the causes of failure of the distillation column for the esterification of n-butanol with acetic acid

¹ Cracow University of Technology, Institute of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 37 Jana Pawla II St., 31-864 Cracow, Poland
² Częstochowa University of Technology, Institute of Mechanical Technologies, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, 69 J.H. Dąbrowskiego St., 42-201 Częstochowa, Poland

^* Corresponding author: slawomir.parzych@mech.pk.edu.pl

Abstract

The aim of the work is to determine the causes of corrosion of the distillation column from material 1.4571 (316Ti) in which acetic acid was produced. The column underwent a rapid and significant wear in a very short time during exploitation. To determine the causes of the failure, samples for testing were cut out of the components of the used distillation column. In the first test chemical analysis of the individual elements was carried out in order to specify the type of steel out of which they were made. The next step was to examine the structure of these elements and to perform microanalysis of the chemical composition of ferrite and austenite. After the completion and analysis of all necessary tests, conclusions were formulated to explain the causes of material consumption.