Kinetics of catalytic esterification of acrylic acid with hexanol over ion exchange resin catalysts

Esterification of acrylic acid with alcohol was studied using ion exchange resins, i.e., Amberlyst 131, Amberlyst 15, and Dowex 50Wx8-400. The influence of temperature, mole ratio of reactants, stirrer speed, particle size of catalyst and amount of catalyst were determined for the esterification of acrylic acid with hexanol catalyzed by Amberlyst 131, which gives the highest conversion. Experimental data were correlated using different kinetic models, e.g., Pseudo-homogeneous, Eley-Rideal, and Langmuir Hinshelwood Haugen Watson models. The reaction rate and adsorption constants were calculated according to kinetic model, which correlated well with the experimental data. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the CHISA 2012 - 20th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering and PRES 2012 - 15th Conference PRES (Prague, Czech Republic 8/25-29/2012).