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Esterification of ethanol with sulfuric acid: A kinetic study
Author(s) -
Theodore Shammi,
Sai P. S. T.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.5450790109
Subject(s) - sulfuric acid , chemistry , anhydrous , yield (engineering) , sodium sulfate , ethanol , isothermal process , sulfate , inorganic chemistry , order of reaction , mole fraction , nuclear chemistry , kinetics , organic chemistry , sodium , materials science , thermodynamics , reaction rate constant , physics , quantum mechanics , metallurgy
Experiments were conducted in a stirred batch reactor under isothermal conditions for obtaining kinetics of the esterification reaction between ethanol and sulfuric acid. Reactive adsorption technique was employed to enhance the conversion. Anhydrous sodium sulfate was used as an adsorbing agent to remove the water formed during the reaction. The variables include the mole ratio of ethanol to sulfuric acid, reaction temperature, purity of the reactants, and the amount of adsorbing agent. The reaction was found to be reversible and second order at low mole ratios, and irreversible and first order at high mole ratios. The kinetic parameters of the rate law were estimated. A possible reaction mechanism was proposed and validated with the experimental data. The effect of the mole ratio of reactants, anhydrous sodium sulfate loading, and purity of the reactants on the yield of ethyl hydrogen sulfate was studied, using full‐factorial search and optimized conditions were obtained by the method of steepest ascent. More precise optimum conditions were obtained using the Box‐Wilson composite method.