Consecutive esterification of 1,4-butanediol with acrylic acid by homogeneous catalysis

The esterification of 1,4-butanediol with acrylic acid catalyzed by sulfuri c acid in the absence of solvent was studied in a batch stirred reactor. Ex periments were carried out with different acid/ alcohol mole ratios and dif ferent amounts of sulfuric acid in the temperature range 70 to 90 degrees C and 1 atm. It was found that the esterification of 1,4-butanediol with acr ylic acid is a two-step consecutive, reversible reaction and each esterific ation step follows a first-order rate expression with respect to each compo nent. A kinetic model was proposed to describe such a consecutive, reversib le esterification reaction catalyzed by sulfuric acid. The equilibrium cons tants were determined from the equilibrium concentrations of each component while the rate constants in each reaction step were calculated by correlat ing the experimental data with the developed kinetic model.