Determination of Adsorption and Kinetic Parameters for Transesterification of Methyl Acetate with Hexanol Catalyzed by Ion Exchange Resin

The transesterification of methyl acetate and 1-hexanol catalyzed by the cation exchange resin Amberlyst-131 was studied to obtain optimum operating parameters, adsorption parameters, and kinetic parameters. The effects of temperature, molar ratio of ester to alcohol, stirrer speed, and catalyst loading on the reaction rate were investigated. The chemical equilibrium constants were obtained from kinetic experiments and theoretically from standard thermodynamic properties at temperatures of 333, 338, 343, and 348 K. The experimental data were tested with the pseudohomogeneous and adsorption based models. The activity coefficients were estimated using UNIQUAC to account for the nonideal thermodynamic behavior of reactants and products for both models. The activation energy for the transesterification reaction was found to be 37.8 kJ mol(-1) by the Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Haugen-Watson (LHHW) model, which correlates the experimental data.