Kinetic Modeling of Pervaporation Aided Esterification of Propionic Acid and Ethanol Using T-Type Zeolite Membrane

As a reversible reaction, the esterification conversion is limited by thermodynamic equilibrium. Pervaporation has been a very useful tool to enhance the esterification reaction by removing its products. In this paper, a T-Type zeolite membrane was used to intensify the esterification of propionic acid and ethanol. On the basis of the Maxwell–Stefan equation, a kinetic model for pervaporation aided esterification of propionic acid and ethanol was developed. The experimental data were in good agreement with the simulation results. The effects of temperature, molar ratio of ethanol to acid, and ratio of membrane area to amount of initial reaction liquid (S/m) on PV-aided esterification were investigated. It was shown that the equilibrium conversion of the esterification without PV was 82.6% but increased to 90.8% with PV aided in 5 h. The conversion of esterification enhanced by pervaporation reached 99.8% in 10 h at 363 K when the molar ratio of ethanol to acid was 2:1 and the ratio of membrane area to amount of initial reaction liquid (S/m) was 0.1059 m2·kg–1.