Esterification of bioplatform molecule succinic acid using ZSM-5 and HZSM-5 catalysts

Abstract

The catalytic esterification of bioplatform molecules (succinic acid) with ethanol accomplished using environmentally benign catalysts ZSM-5 and HZSM-5 is reported. HZSM-5 was synthesised from the sodium form of ZSM-5. Both catalysts were characterised by XRD and FT-IR and the surface acidity was measured by n-butyl titration method. In this work, the effect of various parameters such as the amount of catalyst, the acid to alcohol molar ratio and the reaction time were investigated. Under optimised reaction conditions (75°C, 1 g catalyst, 1:3 mole ratio and 9 h of reaction time), 79% and 94% conversion of succinic acid were obtained using ZSM-5 and HZSM-5, respectively. It was also observed that initially a mono ester was a major product of the reaction, which eventually got converted into a diester.