Transesterification of propylene glycol methyl ether in chromatographic reactors using anion exchange resin as a catalyst.
Reactive chromatography using an anion exchange resin is proposed for a transesterification reaction of propylene glycol methyl ether (DOWANOL™ PM) with ethyl acetate to produce propylene glycol methyl ether acetate (DOWANOL™ PMA). This reaction is studied in batch and chromatographic reactors catalyzed by an anion exchange resin. Several anion exchange resins are tested and compared based on the performance of resin as an adsorbent and a catalyst. A chromatographic column is packed with a selected catalyst, AMBERLITE™ IRA904, and both reaction and chromatographic elution are studied at different temperatures and feed concentrations. The resulting chromatograms are fitted to a mathematical model to obtain adsorption equilibrium and reaction kinetic parameters by the inverse method. Compared to esterification investigated in a previous study, transesterification has advantages such as a higher conversion at lower temperature and easy removal of the byproduct which may lead to higher productivity. Deactivation of anion exchange resins is observed and potential solutions are suggested.
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
Jungmin
J
Oh
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA; Engineering & Process Sciences, Core R&D, The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI, USA.
Balamurali
B
Sreedhar
Engineering & Process Sciences, Core R&D, The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI, USA.
Megan E
ME
Donaldson
Engineering & Process Sciences, Core R&D, The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI, USA.
Timothy C
TC
Frank
Ion Exchange R&D, Dow Water & Process Solutions, The Dow Chemical Company, Collegeville, PA, USA.
Alfred K
AK
Schultz
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
Andreas S
AS
Bommarius
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. Electronic address: ykawajiri@chbe.gatech.edu.
Yoshiaki
Y
Kawajiri
D000327:Adsorption; D000837:Anion Exchange Resins / Q000737:chemistry*; D002384:Catalysis; D002845:Chromatography; D004951:Esterification; D007700:Kinetics; D011409:Propylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry*; D012996:Solutions
D000837:Anion Exchange Resins; D011409:Propylene Glycols; D012996:Solutions; C502307:propylene glycol methyl ether acetate; C005216:propylene glycol methyl ether
Anion exchange resin; Propylene glycol methyl ether acetate; Reactive chromatography; Transesterification