Production Of Ethyl Acetate Using Catalytic Reaction Method

Abstract

Chemical industries drive towards heterogeneous catalysts which meet generation of nearly zero waste chemicals and less energy utilization. Ethyl acetate synthesis by esterification of acetic acid with ethyl alcohol occurs very slowly in the absence of catalyst. In order to make the reaction faster, both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts can be employed. In this work ethyl acetate production using homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts are studied. Two types of inexpensive cation exchange resins locally available in the market are used for the heterogeneous reaction. The homogeneous catalyst study for the ethyl acetate production is done using sulphuric acid catalyst. The study of esterification reaction over heterogeneous catalysts showed maximum conversions of acetic acid in the range 62% to 58% at varying reaction conditions. The heterogeneous reaction experiments carried out within the temperature range 325K to 355K showed second order reversible reaction kinetics. Low activation energy values are observed in the heterogeneous catalyst reactions compared to that of homogeneous experiments. Heterogeneous reaction kinetics study done by examining the effect of initial concentration of acetic acid, ethanol and water on initial reaction rate indicated that the reaction follows Eley-Rideal mechanism. The reusability of the solid catalyst and the reactive distillation of ethyl acetate are also looked at briefly.