Production of 4-hydroxybutyl acrylate and its reaction kinetics overamberlyst 15 catalyst

Esterification of acrylic acid (AA) with 1,4-butanediol (BD) was carried out over a solid acid catalyst to produce 4-hydroxybutyl acrylate (HBA), an environmentally benign coating agent. The Amberlyst 15 catalyst was more active for the reaction than other ion exchanged resin catalysts such as Amberlyst 35 and DOWEX HCR-S(E). The quasi-homogeneous model was chosen to express the esterification reaction kinetics over Amberlyst 15. The stirring speed was changed from 300 rpm to 750 rpm and the reaction rate showed no influence of external mass transfer. The reaction temperature was varied from 100°C to 120°C to calculate activation energies of the reactions. The calculated activation energies were 58.3 kj/mol and 86.7 kj/mol for HBA and BDA (1,4-butanediol diacrylate, by-product) productions, respectively. The catalyst concentration was also changed from 0.0043 g/ml to 0.0171 g/ml to find its effect on the rate constant. The complete kinetic equation of esterification to produce HBA over the Amberlyst 15 catalyst based on the quasi-homogeneous model was developed.