Kinetic study of esterification of acetic acid with methanol over Indion 190 acidic solid catalyst

Abstract

Esterification of acetic acid with methanol to synthesize methyl acetate in an isothermal well-mixed batch reactor was studied in the temperature range of 323.15–353.15 K. Indion 190 ion-exchange resin was used as a solid catalyst. Feed molar ratios were varied from 1: 1 to 1: 4. The influence of temperature, catalyst loading, stirring rate, catalyst particle size and initial molar ratio on the reaction rate was investigated. Experimental results showed that the reaction is kinetically controlled. The sorption experiments were carried out independently to find the adsorption constants. For the constituent components the values of adsorption constants decrease in the order of water > methanol > acetic acid > methyl acetate. The kinetic data were correlated with the pseudo-homogeneous (ideal and non-ideal), Eley-Rideal and Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson (LHHW) models to determine the kinetic parameters. All the models were suitable to predict the experimental data, but with the LHHW model a more accurate match of the experimental data was achieved.