Iranian Association of Chemical Engineering (IAChE) Iranian Journal of Chemical Engineering (IJChE) 1735-5397 19 3 2022 09 01 Optimization of the homogeneous rhodium-catalyzed methanol carbonylation reactor to reduce CO2 emissions 50 68 165983 10.22034/ijche.2023.364482.1459 EN A.H. Oudi Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran R. Golhosseini Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran Journal Article 2022 10 04 Optimization of the homogeneous rhodium-catalyzed methanol carbonylation reactor to reduce CO2 emissions is studied in this line of research. In this paper, the steady-state homogeneous rhodium-catalyzed methanol carbonylation reactor is simulated using Aspen HysysV.9 software, by comparing the simulation results with industrial information, a mean relative error (excluding methanol) of 4.8% was obtained, which indicates the high accuracy of the simulation. The central composite design (CCD) and genetic algorithm (GA) with the aid of a simplified process simulation were used to estimate the effect of individual variables (liquid level, the temperature of the catalyst-rich recycle stream, the mole ratio of CO to methanol (MeOH) in the feed, and flow rate of dilute acid stream) and their mutual interactions to reduce CO2 emissions. It is obtained that the liquid level percentage of 46%, the catalyst-rich recycle stream temperature of 120 °C, CO: MeOH molar ratio equal to 1.13:1, and the dilute acid flow rate of 513.14 kmol/hr lead to CO2 reduction by 34%. https://www.ijche.com/article_165983_c7408587d4bd62ec267c1c2f91550fd5.pdf