Kinetics of Ethyl Acetate Synthesis Catalyzed by Acidic Resins

A low-cost experiment to carry out the second-order reversible reaction of acetic acid esterification with ethanol to produce ethyl acetate is presented to illustrate concepts of kinetics and reactor modeling. The reaction is performed in a batch reactor, and the acetic acid concentration is measured by acid-base titration versus time. The experimental data are used to optimize the specific rate constant of the direct reaction, which is the unique parameter of the model; the rate constant for the inverse reaction is expressed in terms of the equilibrium constant. Good representations are generally obtained: the absolute average relative deviation found in this work is only 2.86%. After the experiment, students may carry out simulations for distinct operating conditions. The experimental data for short times are also analyzed approximately by using the classical approach for irreversible second-order reactions.