Engineering and Technology Journal (Jul 2011)
Reaction Kinetics of Acetic Acid and n-Butanol Esterification Catalyzed by Dowex 50 Catalyst
Abstract
The reaction kinetics of the n-butanol esterification and acetic acid on acidic solid catalyst named Dowex 50 under atmospheric pressure was investagated in this work. Reaction experiments were carried out in a stirred batch reactor at temperature range of 343 to 363 K, under various catalyst loads and various starting reactants feed ratios. The experimental data were fitted to estimate the kinetic parameters for reaction mechanisms by using MATLAB 7 software. The chemical equilibrium composition was measured and kinetic information was obtained at the same temperature range. The results show that the activation energy of n-butanol esterification reaction was found to be 39.975 kJ/mol. Finally the results of produced reaction mechanisms were compared with experimental results to validate the reaction mechanism. Then it was conclud that the model results with the regressed kinetic parameters are in excellent agreement with the experimental results.
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