A novel catalytic composite membrane with anti-swelling for enhancing esterification of acetic acid with ethanol

Abstract

Ester have important applications in medicine chemical industry, but esterification is a typical reversible reaction controlled by thermodynamic equilibrium. In the study, a new type of catalytic composite membrane (CCM) with SA-MoS2/PAN as separation layer was reported. By-product water was proposed by pervaporation membrane reactor to improve the conversion rate of acetic acid. In 10 wt% ethanol-water solution, the separation factor of the catalytic composite membrane is 145 and the flux is 547 g m−2 h−1. Under the optimal condition, the acetic acid conversion rate reached 94.3%, which was 29% higher than that of batch reaction. The effects of single-layer catalytic membrane and double-layer catalytic membrane on acetic acid conversion rate were studied, which showed that the double-layer catalytic membrane had higher stability in esterification reaction.It is proved that high crosslinking degree can improve the stability of the membrane and reduce the conversion rate of acetic acid.

Keywords

• MoS2
• Stability
• Esterification reaction
• Catalytic composite membrane
• Pervaporation