A commercial tubular zeolite membrane (NaA) was employed in a vapor permeation system to dehydrate the reaction mixture during the esterification of propionic acid with isopropanol. The reaction was performed in a batch reactor, using Amberlyst 15 as a catalyst with different weight fractions relative to propionic acid. Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of the alcohol-to-acid molar ratio on the performance of the hybrid process. The integration of the chemical reaction with the vapor permeation process significantly enhanced the conversion of the
reversible esterification reaction. It was observed that contrary to the effect of increasing alcohol-to-acid molar ratio from 1 : 1 to 1.5 : 1, the acid conversion and the permeated water flux decreased when the reactants molar ratio increased from 1.5 : 1 to 3 : 1. This effect was due to the reducing effect of reaction mixture composition on the boiling point and reaction and evaporation rates during the hybrid process. Also, increasing catalyst loading had noticeable influence on the acid conversion and the permeated water flux.
Bernal MP, Coronas J, Menendez M, Santamaria J, Int. J. Santamaria (Ed.), Fourth International Conference on Catalysis in Membrane Reactors, ICCMR, Zaragosa, Spain, 71, 2000
Tanaka K, Kita H, Okamoto K, Int. J. Santamaria (Ed.), Fourth International Conference on Catalysis in Membrane Reactors, ICCMR, Zaragosa, Spain, 73, 2000