Abstract
The production of sulfonated resins is of great interest to be applied in different industrial processes such as esterification, etherification, biodiesel production and water treatment. Mathematical models play an important role in process control and optimization, through prediction of process variables and adjustment of parameters. Currently mathematical models for resin sulfonation processes are still scarce in literature. In the present study, mathematical tools were used to build a model that is able to describe the sulfonation process of poly[styrene-co-(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate)] particles. The diffusion and rate coefficients were estimated through comparison between the model and the experimental data and presented coherent values. An average activation energy of 170 kJ/mol was obtained for the sulfonation reaction. The results revealed that, for the conditions studied herein, the process is diffusion-controlled and can be represented by the shrinking core model, considering irreversible pseudo-first order reaction for sulfuric acid.
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