Abstract:
The reaction between ethyl acetate and water is an important reaction in chemical
engineering applications. In the absence of a catalyst, the reaction rate is very slow and it is not
economical for industrial applications. The objective of this research is to study the kinetics of the
above reaction using the heterogeneous catalyst, Trilite SCR-B. This is a polymeric resin which is
normally used for water purification. Several experiments were done at different temperatures to find
out the activation energy of the reaction when this resin was used as the catalyst. The reaction
performance under various catalyst loadings was studied. Results show that as the loading increases
the rate at which the equilibrium condition is reached increases. The initial reaction rate shows an
increase with the increase in reaction temperature. The activation energy was found to be
16.33kJ/mol.
