Kinetics of Ethyl Acetate Synthesis Catalyzed by Acidic Resins

Abstract

A low-cost experiment to carry out the second-order reversible reaction of acetic acid esterification with ethanol to produce ethyl acetate is presented to illustrate concepts of kinetics and reactor modeling. The reaction is performed in a batch reactor, and the acetic acid concentration is measured by acid–base titration versus time. The experimental data are used to optimize the specific rate constant of the direct reaction, which is the unique parameter of the model; the rate constant for the inverse reaction is expressed in terms of the equilibrium constant. Good representations are generally obtained: the absolute average relative deviation found in this work is only 2.86%. After the experiment, students may carry out simulations for distinct operating conditions. The experimental data for short times are also analyzed approximately by using the classical approach for irreversible second-order reactions.