Facile Synthesis of Homogeneous Catalyzed Esterification of Medium-Chain-Length Fatty Acids and Kinetic Study

Abstract

In the recent past, esters of medium-chain fatty acids have received much attention due to their wide industrial application, medicinal importance, and biofuel use as alternative to petroleum diesel. Therefore, in the present work the repercussion of medium-chain-length fatty acids (MCLFAs) (C6–C10) with various alcohols for the homogeneous catalyzed esterification has been studied. The esterification of the MCLFAs with distinct alcohols (n-PrOH, i-PrOH, and n-BuOH) has been studied in detail in a batch reactor. The impacts of various factors such as the mole ratio of MCLFAs to distinct alcohol, catalyst concentration, and temperature have been studied. A kinetic model revealed that the esterification of MCLFAs with various alcohols can be explained well by a pseudohomogeneous first-order reaction. The rate of the reaction, activation energy, and frequency factors were estimated using Arrhenius plots. The reactivity and influence of carbon chain length of MCLFAs and the effect of branching of alcohols were investigated to find out the maximum conversion of MCLFAs.