Liquid-phase esterification of methacrylic acid with methanol catalyzed by cation-exchange resin in a fixed bed reactor: Experimental and kinetic studies

The kinetic behavior of esterification between methacrylic acid and methanol catalyzed by NKC-9 resin was studied in a fixed bed reactor. The reaction was conducted in the temperature range of 323.15 to 368.15 K with the molar ratio of reactants from 0.8 to 1.4 under certain pressure. The measurement data were regression with the pseudo-homogeneous (P-H), Eley-Rideal (E-R), and Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) heterogeneous kinetic models. Independent adsorption experiments were implemented to gain the adsorption equilibrium constants of four components. Among the above three models, the L-H model exhibited the best fitting results. The stability of NKC-9 was evaluated by long-term running with the yield of methyl methacrylate no decrease during 3000 h operation. The structure and physicochemical properties of the new and used catalyst were performed by several characterizations including thermo-gravimetric analysis (TG), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier trans -form infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and so on.(c) 2022 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The kinetic behavior of esterification between methacrylic acid and methanol catalyzed by NKC-9 resin in a fixed bed reactor was studied. The reaction was conducted at temperatures ranging from 323.15 to 368.15 K with a molar ratio of reactants from 0.8 to 1.4 under certain pressure. Three different kinetic models were used to fit the experimental data, and the Langmuir-Hinshelwood model showed the best fitting results. The stability of the NKC-9 resin was evaluated through long-term operation, showing no decrease in the yield of methyl methacrylate during 3000 hours. The structure and physicochemical properties of the catalyst were analyzed using various characterization techniques.