Isobutyl acetate by reactive distillation. Part II. Kinetic study

• Published in: Chemical engineering research & design Vol. 160; pp. 447 - 453
• Main Authors: Martínez, Andrés F., Sánchez, César A., Orjuela, Alvaro, Gil, Iván D., Rodríguez, Gerardo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Rugby Elsevier B.V 01.08.2020; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Acetic acid; Amberlyst 15; Catalysts; Chemical synthesis; Design of experiments; Distillation; Esterification; Experiments; Isobutanol; Isobutyl acetate; Kinetics; Liquid phases; Mass transfer; Reactive distillation; Amberlyst 15; Reactive distillation; Isobutyl acetate; Kinetics; Esterification
• ISSN: 0263-8762; 1744-3563
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cherd.2020.06.023

[Display omitted] •Study of esterification of acetic acid and isobutanol under heterogeneous catalysis.•Temperature dependence of chemical equilibrium was experimentally evaluated.•Amberlyst 15 was used as catalyst under kinetic regime.•Reaction kinetics was modeled using a pseudo-homogeneous approach. This work deals with the kinetic modeling of the synthesis of isobutyl acetate by liquid-phase esterification of isobutanol with acetic acid, in presence of the heterogeneous catalyst Amberlyst 15. Based upon a statistical experimental design, isothermal batch experiments were performed in the temperature range of 343.15–373.15 K, at three different catalyst loadings, and at different acid to alcohol mole ratios (1:1, 2:1 and 1:2). Preliminary experiments were run to assess the effects of internal and external mass transfer phenomena, and they were ruled out based upon the Weisz–Prater criterion. Thus, further experiments were run at stirring rates of 800 RPM, and catalyst particle diameters under 300 μm to ensure a kinetic regime. Independent experiments were run to obtain the chemical equilibrium constant at different temperatures, and by mean of a van’t Hoff equation, a ΔHR of 16.47 kJ/mol was obtained. Incorporating the equilibrium constant, the kinetic experimental data were regressed with a molar fraction-based pseudo homogeneous model. The obtained model accurately fits experiments and it can be used for further simulation of reactive distillation processes for isobutyl acetate production.