Abstract
We developed a microreactor for water separation through a T-type zeolite membrane by pervaporation. The microreactor was applied to an equilibrium esterification reaction of oleic acid. Moreover, the rate constants were obtained from experimental data in order to understand the reaction mechanisms. We tried to optimize the reaction processes and provide the yield improvement by water separation using microreactors. In the batch method with water separation, the yield was improved by only 3.1 percentage points from the equilibrium point at longer reaction time of 180 min. On the other hand, in microreactors with water separation, the yield achieved 62.6% at the reaction time of 85.1 min and was improved by 10.3 percentage points from the equilibrium point. The experimental reaction rate constant for the forward esterification reaction, k1 for microreactors was about 5 times larger than those for the batch methods. Furthermore, the rate constant for water separation, k2 for microreactors were about 108 times larger than that for the batch method. It was verified that water was effectively separated in the microreactor for water separation and the reaction conditions were optimized for both the first step without water separation and the second step with water separation.
