Enhancement of esterification reaction yield using zeolite A vapour permeation membrane

Potential of Pervaporation and Vapor Separation with Water Selective Membranes for an Optimized Production of Biofuels—A Review

“…A tubular zeolite NaA membrane, prepared on a carbon/zirconia support, was also tested for the removal of water in the homogeneously catalyzed esterification of lactic acid with ethanol to produce ethyl lactate in both PV and VP mode. The reaction was studied in a batch reactor without catalyst and with p-toluene sulphonic acid as catalyst, the VP process giving a significantly enhanced yield [101]. Tanaka et al applied T-type zeolite membrane to VP aided esterification of lactic acid with ethanol [11] finding that such a membrane has high permeation performance to water-organic liquid mixtures and good stability to acid solutions.…”

Zeolite Catalysis

“…As an alternative to reactive distillation, different reactor configurations including pervaporation membranes could be applied in the esterification reactions [126], where the water permeation through the membrane is assisted by the mean of applied vacuum or sweep gas and then further condensed in a cold trap. In the last decades, membranes coupled to esterification processes have been investigated considering different zeolite structures, including zeolite A [127], sodalite (SOD) [128], chabazite CHA [129].…”

“…So for instance, Jafar et al [127] investigated the homogeneously catalyzed esterification of lactic acid and ethanol by p-toluene sulphonic acid as catalyst, using a zeolite A membrane supported on carbon/zirconia tube for the separation of the produced water. Despite the superior performance of the zeolite A membrane in terms of water flux and selectivity [130,131], its low stability in acidic media [132] imposed the need of performing the process under vapor permeation conditions in order to avoid the direct contact of the membrane with the acidic reaction environment.…”

A kinetic study of the esterification of lactic acid by ethanol in the presence of Preyssler acid an eco-friendly solid acid catalyst

“…This ester is biodegradable and can be used as food additive, perfumery, flavor chemical and solvent [3]. A literature survey shows that the kinetic study on the esterification of lactic acid with ethanol has been largely overlooked [1,[4][5][6] and there is no report with Preyssler heteropolyacid as a catalyst. Heteropolyacids are useful acid catalysts for various reactions and there are many practical applications for them [7].…”

“…This polyanion consist of a cyclic assembly of five PW 6 O 22 units each derived from the Keggin anion, [PW 12 O 40 ] 3-, by the removal two sets of three-corner-shared WO 6 octahedra. A sodium ion is located within the poly anion on the five-fold axis and 1.25 Å above the pseudomirror plane that contains the five phosphorus atoms.…”