Esterification of Acetic Acid and Ethanol for Ethyl Acetate Productionby Vanadium Catalyst on Biochar Support

Abstract

Ethyl acetate can be synthesized by Fisher esterification reaction using acetic acid and ethanol for raw materials with acid catalysts. In this study, we firstly developed the solid acid catalyst of V2O5 supported on biochars for this reaction. The use of biochar as support is very interesting since it is renewable. Experimentally, the vanadium (V) catalyst was prepared by the incipient wetness impregnation method with various V contents from 3, 6, and 9 wt%. The supports used were biochars derived from two sources including bamboo and palm. After calcination, all catalysts were characterized using various techniques SEM-EDX, FTIR, XRD, ammonia-TPD, and N2 physisorption to determine the physicochemical properties. To perform esterification, the liquid phase reaction of ethanol and acetic acid was conducted in the batch reactor using ethanol: acetic acid molar ratio of 1.5:1 with a total volume of 50 ml and 1 wt% of solid catalyst based on weight of acetic acid. The reaction occurred at 80 ºC for 40 minutes. The product distribution was analyzed by gas chromatography to determine acetic acid conversion and ethyl acetate selectivity. It was found that 9 wt% V2O5/biochar catalyst exhibited the highest activity having acetic acid conversion of 72% with ethyl acetate selectivity of 45%. It revealed that metal leaching occurred during the reaction. However, this study shows the new insight that biochars can be used for support for V catalyst with promising results in the esterification.