Sulfated Iron Oxide-Catalyzed Esterification of Acetic Acid with n-Butanol by Reactive Distillation

The potential applicability of reactive distillation was investigated in the esterification of acetic acid with n-butanol catalyzed by sulfated iron oxide at a stoichiometric molar ratio. Low-cost, easily available, and reusable uncoated clay beads were used as column packing. Higher acid conversion in a shorter reaction time was achieved in the reactive distillation process in comparison to the batch process. The effects of reaction temperature, catalyst loading, packing material, and packing height on acid conversion were investigated. The Eley-Rideal model was found to be appropriate to elaborate the reaction kinetics and resulted in a lower activation energy for the reactive distillation process compared with the batch process.