Transesterification of propylene glycol methyl ether in chromatographic reactors using anion exchange resin as a catalyst

Reactive chromatography using an anion exchange resin is proposed for a transesterification reaction of propylene glycol methyl ether (DOWANOL™ PM) with ethyl acetate to produce propylene glycol methyl ether acetate (DOWANOL™ PMA). This reaction is studied in batch and chromatographic reactors catalyzed by an anion exchange resin. Several anion exchange resins are tested and compared based on the performance of resin as an adsorbent and a catalyst. A chromatographic column is packed with a selected catalyst, AMBERLITE™ IRA904, and both reaction and chromatographic elution are studied at different temperatures and feed concentrations. The resulting chromatograms are fitted to a mathematical model to obtain adsorption equilibrium and reaction kinetic parameters by the inverse method. Compared to esterification investigated in a previous study, transesterification has advantages such as a higher conversion at lower temperature and easy removal of the byproduct which may lead to higher productivity. Deactivation of anion exchange resins is observed and potential solutions are suggested.