Alcohol ethoxylation kinetics: Proton transfer influence on product distribution in microchannels

The influence of the reactor type on the product distribution of the base catalyzed ethoxylation of fatty alcohols was studied. ly, proton exchange equilibrium is assumed when modeling this reaction to calculate the product distribution. The model is applicable for ethoxylates produced in semibatch, but cannot explain the products obtained from a continuous microstructured reactor. s work, a non-equilibrium model is proposed to explain the observed distributions. The model is better suited to fit the distribution curves, and was used to determine the kinetic parameters of this reaction. e propagation reaction, an activation energy EA,P = 74 kJ mol−1 was found, which is in good agreement to literature data. For the proton transfer, activation energies in the range of 56 kJ mol−1 to 68 kJ mol−1 were observed.