Modeling of esterification of acetic acid with n-butanol in the presence of Zr(SO4)2·4H2O coupled pervaporation

Modeling of esterification of acetic acid with n-butanol in the presence of Zr(SO4)2·4H2O coupled pervaporation was studied in this paper. The influence of several process variables, such as process temperature, initial mole ratio of acetic acid over n-butanol, the ratio of the effective membrane area over the volume of reacting mixture and catalyst content, on the esterification was discussed. The calculated results for the conversion of n-butanol to water and permeation flux were consistence with the experimental data. The permselectivity and water content can be roughly estimated by the model equations.