Abstract
Esterification of acetic acid with ethyl alcohol was carried out in the presence of a cation exchange resin. The resin used was Lewatit S1467, which is commercially available at a low cost and used commonly in the water treatment industry. The catalyst pretreated with HCl showed higher acetic acid conversions. The acidic cation exchange resin treated with HCl was examined for catalyst loading, reaction temperature and reusability. The highest acetic acid conversion of 58 % was observed for acetic acid to ethanol mole ratio of 1:1 at 335 K with a 5.4 % (w/w) catalyst loading. The experimental data were fitted with the pseudo homogeneous model, and the heterogeneous models Langmuir-Hinshelwood (LH) and Eley- Rideal (ER). LH model provided a better agreement with the experimental kinetic data, and the activation energy was found to be about 58 kJmol-1.
Highlights
The conventional way to produce esters is the esterification of carboxylic acids with alcohols catalysed by homogeneous catalysts such as sulphuric acid
The cation exchange resin, Lewatit S1467, which is available in the local market was used as the catalyst
The above results show that a 58 % acetic acid conversion can be achieved in the esterification of equi molar ratio of reactants at 335 K reaction temperature over 5.4 % (w/w) of Lewatit S1467 catalyst soaked in 35 % (w/w) HCl for 30 minutes and dried at 363 K for 4 hours
Summary
The conventional way to produce esters is the esterification of carboxylic acids with alcohols catalysed by homogeneous catalysts such as sulphuric acid. Kirbaslar et al (2001a), have studied the esterification of acetic acid with ethyl alcohol catalysed by an acidic ionexchange resin, Amberlyst-15 They have investigated the effects of catalyst loading, reactant molar ratios, initial water concentration and temperature on the reaction rate. The esterification of acetic acid with ethyl alcohol catalysed by an inexpensive cation exchange resin available in the local market, namely Lewatit S1467, was investigated. This is a cation exchange resin of Na+ form mainly used in the water treatment industry. Samples of 2 mL were withdrawn from the reactor at regular intervals and analysed to determine the unconverted acetic acid by titrating against 1N NaOH using phenolphthalein indicator
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