Improved Esterification of Citric Acid and n-Butanol Using a Dense and Acid-Resistant Beta Zeolite Membrane

Abstract

In this work, a dense and acid-resistant beta zeolite membrane was applied to improve the esterification of citric acid and n-butanol, for the first time. Through the continuous removal of the by-product water via pervaporation (PV), the conversion of citric acid was significantly enhanced from 71.7% to 99.2% using p-Toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA) as catalyst. PTSA was a well-known strong acid, and the membrane kept almost no change after PV-esterification, indicating the superior acid resistance of beta zeolite membrane. Compared to the use of acid-resistant MOR zeolite membrane by PV-esterification, a consistently higher conversion of citric acid was obtained using a high-flux beta zeolite membrane. The results showed that high water permeation on the beta zeolite membrane, with good acid resistance, had a strong promoting effect on esterification, leading to an improved conversion. In addition, the citric acid conversion of 97.7% could still be achieved by PV-esterification at a low reaction temperature of 388 K.

Water‐Doped Brønsted Acidic Protic Ionic Liquids for Enhanced Tributyl Citrate Synthesis in a Two‐Phase Esterification System

“…[39][40][41] Moreover, TBC is useful as a solvent in the manufacturing of inks and coatings. [42] Tributyl citrate is typically synthesized via esterification of citric acid with 1butanol (BuOH) in the presence of a catalyst commonly sulfuric acid, p-toluenesulfonic acid, [43,44] ion-exchange resin [45][46][47] and supported [48][49][50] or solid acids. [51] Once the reaction is complete, the TBC is typically purified by distillation to remove any remaining water and unreacted starting materials.…”