Synthesis and Evaluation of a Low Pressure Drop Structured Catalyst for Use in the Reactive Distillation Process

Techniques are presented for the growth of a zeolite coating onto a structured ceramic packing for distillation (Raschig rings). Electron microscopy and powder X-ray diffraction studies show a very high coverage of the support with the ZSM-5 structure and show resistance to damage/dissolution during the esterification of acetic acid to methyl acetate using the prepared catalysts. Comparisons are made with other catalysts from the literature for the same reaction and the material is shown to be significantly better than an equivalent weight of Amberlyst catalyst.