The objective of this research work was to investigate the kinetics of esterification of acetic acid with n-butanol through the variation of experimental parameters. The reaction mixture was catalyzed heterogeneously by a sulfonated catalyst in batch mode of operation. The catalyst was prepared from abundantly available agro-waste, Cajanus cajan husk by chemical activation process, which produces a carbon-based solid catalyst with high surface area. The catalyst was characterized by a Brunauer-Emmet-Teller surface analyzer and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to know the surface morphology. Process parameters such as contact time, reaction temperature, and catalyst loading, which can influence the extent of conversion of reactants, were studied. Furthermore, the kinetic investigation was also carried out to estimate the kinetic parameters for uncatalyzed and catalyzed reaction using the second-order pseudohomogeneous (P-H), Eley-Rideal (E-R), and Langmuir-Hinshelwood (LH) kinetic models for this research work. The kinetic parameters such as activation energy, preexponential factor, and the thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy and entropy were estimated for uncatalyzed and catalyzed reactions using these three models. The process conditions were optimized for catalyzed and uncatalyzed reactions to obtain the maximum product yield by minimizing root mean square error of each experimental data using the MS-excel solver tool. Thus, this study reveals the high potential of an agro-waste, Cajanus cajan husk as raw material for the synthesis of catalyst. The results show that the E-R model is more appropriate for predicting the dynamic data of an esterification reaction, as the forward rate of reaction estimated using the E-R model are more modified than P-H and L-H models. K E Y W O R D Scatalyst, conversion, esterification, heterogeneous, kinetics 450

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Dairy byproduct is known for its valuable chemical and nutritional content possessing high market potential. Notwithstanding, it is tractable to exploit its utilization. The waste generated is organic and having huge energy potential. The objective of current research is to synthesize novel catalyst from a dairy based solid waste called Ghee Residue by chemical activation process and deploy it for the production of iso-butyl lactate. Surface identity of catalyst was furnished using Brunauer-Emmet Teller (BET) method and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Effect of variables like reaction time, temperature of reaction and loading of catalyst on lactic acid conversion were studied. In addition to this, reaction kinetics modelling was performed using 2nd order pseudo-homogeneous approach. It was inferred that, both internal as well as external resistance of mass transfer could not offer any influence on overall rate of reaction in this esterification. Optimum condition for esterification reaction was at 368 K with 3% catalyst loading giving the highest conversion around 74%. The energy of activation for the present system using synthesized catalyst was 41.5 kJ/mol and found to be lower in comparison with the other catalysts. Although, the activity of GRC declined gradually less than 10% from the activity of the several reaction cycle.

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This paper focuses on the optimization of energy consumption in esterification of acetic acid wherein the water removal is achieved by using silica gel desiccant in a microcontroller based automated reactor. Esterification reactions are endothermic hence, one can get more product, by increasing the temperature, thus disturbing the equilibrium. Heat of reaction (Hr) was estimated by using the heat capacity data and constants (C). Energy analysis and modelling was developed for the enhancement of process which is the key component of the systems. The mathematical model is validated by experimental results. In this paper, effect of parameters like desiccant weight, regeneration temperature and molar ratio on energy consumption are studied. Trends of energy effectiveness of several parameters are presented in the various regeneration temperatures and molar ratio and desiccant weight which confirmed the linear relationship with hot air flowrate. Decrease of 33% in power consumption was observed by decreasing the hot air flowrate by 10%.This is the conformity of validation of affinity law. The newly invented model was optimized for variables, hot air temperature, molar ratio and silica gel weight. The minimum energy consumption at 1 desirability was reported by software in the given range of parameters. When the hot air temperature, molar ratio and silica gel weight were 67.670C, 3 and 34.32 gm, then the minimum value of energy consumption was 29.59 Watt. Chemical Engineering Research Bulletin 21(2019) 46-57