Kinetics Modeling of the Heterogeneously Catalyzed Esterification of 2,3-Butanediol with Acetic Acid

Esterification of 2,2,3-butanediol a homogeneous catalyst was studied in 1945 under the, Synthetic Rubber Program. The aim of this paper is to show that this reaction can be carried out with a heterogeneous catalyst, which presents many advantages such as the possibility of separation and recycling. The kinetic behavior of heterogeneous esterification of 2,3-butanediol with acetic acid over an ion-exchange resin Amberlyst 36 was investigated in a batch reactor. The experiments were conducted with different amounts of catalyst (from 1.1% to 4.4%, relatively to the initial molar quantity of 2,3-butanediol), with molar ratios of reactants (acetic acid to 2,3-butanediol) varying from 2 to 12, and at temperatures from 50 to 110 degrees C. Our experimental system was able to acquire kinetic data, even during the first minutes of the reaction. A simple model based on reliable hypotheses was built and the experimental data were used to determine all the kinetic and thermodynamic constants of the reaction. A single set of parameters is able to represent correctly the evolution of all different species present during the esterification reaction in function of time.