Part III: Continuous esterification of butanol in a rotating disc extractor

Abstract

The esterification of n‐butyl alcohol with acetic acid has been carried out continuously in a Rotating Disc Extractor (RDC) in a two phase water‐n‐heptane system. Peculiar phase inversion characteristics have been observed under some experimental conditions during simultaneous transfer of the acid and alcohol, and this has been explained in terms of the changes in the concentration gradients of these two species along the length of the column. A mathematical model has been developed of the continuous process incorporating the equilibria correlations presented in Part I of this study and the kinetic data presnted in Part II to predict the performance of the RDC. The predicted results have been compared with the experimental results and good agreement was obtained.