Abstract

Kinetics of Esterification of Citric Acid with Butanol using Sulphuric Acid

Author(s): Pratibha Singh, Sanjay P. Kable and Prakash V. Chavan

Reaction kinetics was studied for esterification reaction of citric acid with butanol in the batch isothermal experiments using sulphuric acid as a catalyst. The effect of temperature on the rate of reaction has been studied in the range of 100-140o C. It has been found that the rate of reaction increases with an increase in temperature and optimum temperature was found to be 140o C. At optimum temperature, the conversion of citric acid was found to be 86.8% with corresponding yield of tri-butyl citrate equal to 99.43%. The rate expression has been proposed and kinetic parameters, activation energy and frequency factor, have been determined.