Abstract
Catalytic esterification of acetic acid with methanol to produce methyl acetate in a stirred batch reactor was investigated in the presence of Amberlyst 16, Indion 180 and Amberlyst 36 catalysts. Amberlyst 36 was found to be an effective solid catalyst for this reaction compared to the other solid catalysts. The reaction was performed in the temperature range of 323.15–353.15 K and the catalyst loading in the range of 0.01–0.05 g cm−3. The initial reactant feed molar ratios of acetic acid to methanol were varied from 1:1 to 1:4. The influence of different parameters like temperature, catalyst loading, magnetic stirrer speed and average catalyst particle sizes on the conversion kinetics of acetic acid has been investigated. The maximum conversion of acetic acid was increased on increasing the feed molar ratio. From the experimental results, it was observed that the reaction is kinetically controlled rather than controlled by internal and external mass transfer. The experimental data were correlated with the pseudo homogeneous (PH), Eley–Rideal (ER) and Langmuir–Hinshelwood (LH) models. The activity coefficients were calculated using UNIQUAC model to account for the non-ideal behaviour of the components. Of the different kinetic models; the LH, surface rate-determining model, fitted best with the experimental data.