Esterification Reaction Kinetics Using Ion Exchange Resin Catalyst by Pseudo- Homogenous and Eley-Ridel Models

This work deals with kinetics and chemical equilibrium studies of esterification reaction of ethanol with acetic acid. The esterification reaction was catalyzed by an acidic ion exchange resin (Amberlyst- 15) using a batch stirred tank reactor. The pseudo-homogenous and Eley-Rideal models were successfully fitted with experimental data. At first, Eley-Rideal model was examined for heterogeneous esterification of acetic acid and ethanol. The pseudo-homogenous model was investigated with a power-law model. The apparent reaction order was determined to be (0.88) for Ethanol and (0.92) for acetic acid with a correlation coefficient (R^2) of 0.981 and 0.988, respectively. The reaction order was determined to be 4.1087x10^-3 L0.8/(mol^0.8.min) with R^2 of 0.954. The adsorption constants of acetic acid and ethanol were calculated as 0.023 and 0.044 L/mol, respectively and the lumped reaction constant were determined to be 5*10^-4 L^2/gcat.mol.min. The results of the reaction kinetic study show that the high acetic acid/ethanol molar ratio was favored. The maximum conversion of 70 % was obtained at 70°C for acetic acid/ethanol molar ratio of 4.