Kinetic study of the esterification of acetic acid with butanol catalyzed by sulfated zirconia

The kinetics of the esterification of acetic acid with butanol in the presence of sulfated zirconia was studied. Several kinetic models were tested to correlate the kinetic data. The experimental data was represented by the Eley-Rideal mechanism and it is found that sulfated zirconia is suitable for this reaction since the activation energy reduced from 58.0 to 49.2 kJ/mol. The liquid phase esterification of butanol with acetic acid was carried out in a batch reactor at temperatures of 328, 333, 338 and 343 K, with an alcohol to acid molar ratio of 1. The equilibrium constants were determined in separate experiments at 328, 333, 338 and 343 K and calculated as 29.9, 29.3, 28.6 and 28.0, in order. Before these kinetic and equilibrium runs, the catalyst was prepared by impregnating zirconia with H(2)SO(4). The prepared catalyst was characterized by thermal analysis, XRD, SEM, BET-surface area and IR analysis.