S. Thotla, V. Agarwal, S. Mahajani
Sep 1, 2007
Citations
0
Influential Citations
30
Citations
Journal
Chemical Engineering Science
Abstract
Dimerization of acetone (Ac) yields diacetone alcohol (DAA), which on further dehydration gives mesityl oxide (MO) along with various side-products. The reacting system is a combination of various series and parallel reactions. In the present work, the reaction is studied using a cation exchange resin (Amberlyst 15®) as catalyst. The effect of catalyst loading and temperature on reaction kinetics was evaluated and three models based on simplified Langmuir-Hinselwood mechanism are proposed. Aim of the work is to minimize undesired side-products and understand the effect of different parameters and operating modes on DAA:MO product ratio in reactive distillation (RD). It has been shown that the reaction when operated in a reactive rectification mode offers flexibility in the relative production rates of DAA and MO. The experimental results obtained are explained by simulation.