Kinetic Study and Process Simulation of Transesterification of Methyl Acetate and Isoamyl Alcohol Catalyzed by Ionic Liquid

The reaction kinetics and chemical equilibrium of the transesterification of methyl acetate and isoamyl alcohol catalyzed by 1-sulfobutyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate ([HSO3bmim][HSO4]) were investigated. The effects of reaction temperature, initial reactant molar ratio, and catalyst concentration on the kinetics were studied. Two kinetic models, the ideal homogeneous (IH) model and the nonideal homogeneous (NIH) model, were used to correlate the kinetic data. The NIH model was more reliable to describe the reaction rate. The residue curve maps of the reaction system at different mole fractions of IL catalyst were computed, and according to the analysis of residue curve maps, a reactive distillation process was proposed. Effects of operational and structural parameters of reactive distillation column were investigated. An experiment of the reactive distillation in a lab-scale column was then conducted to validate the simulation results.