Kinetic Study of Esterification of Lactic Acid with Isobutanol and n-Butanol Catalyzed by Ion-exchange Resins

The esterification reactions of lactic acid with isobutanol and n-butanol have been studied in the presence of acid ion-exchange resin Weblyst D009. The influences of catalyst loading, stirrer speed, catalyst particle size, initial reactant molar ratio and temperature on the reaction rate have been examined. Experimental kinetic data were correlated by using the Pseudo-homogeneous, Langmuir-Hinshelwood and Eley-Rideal models. Nonideality of the liquid phase was taken into account by using activities instead of molar fractions. The activity coefficients were calculated according to the group contribution method UNIFAC. Provided that the nonideality of the liquid is taken into account, the esterification kinetics of lactic acid with isobutanol and n-butanol catalyzed by the acid ion-exchange resin can be described using all three models with reasonable errors.