Potential biofuel additive from renewable sources--Kinetic study of formation of butyl acetate by heterogeneously catalyzed transesterification of ethyl acetate with butanol.

Butyl acetate holds great potential as a sustainable biofuel additive. Heterogeneously catalyzed transesterification of biobutanol and bioethylacetate can produce butyl acetate. This route is eco-friendly and offers several advantages over the commonly used Fischer Esterification. The Amberlite IR 120- and Amberlyst 15-catalyzed transesterification is studied in a batch reactor over a range of catalyst loading (6-12 wt.%), alcohol to ester feed ratio (1:3 to 3:1), and temperature (303.15-333.15K). A butanol mole fraction of 0.2 in the feed is found to be optimum. Amberlite IR 120 promotes faster kinetics under these conditions. The transesterifications studied are slightly exothermic. The moles of solvent sorbed per gram of catalyst decreases (ethanol>butanol>ethyl acetate>butyl acetate) with decrease in solubility parameter. The dual site models, the Langmuir Hinshelwood and Popken models, are the most successful in correlating the kinetics over Amberlite IR 120 and Amberlyst 15, respectively.

Solubility of sulfur dioxide in chlorine-treated wastewater.

The solubility of sulfur dioxide in chlorine-treated wastewater was investigated. An experimental study was carried out to measure the solubility of sulfur dioxide in chlorine-treated wastewater over the temperature range of 10-40 degrees C. The highest solubility of sulfur dioxide was found to be equal to 1.098 x 10(-3) mole/L at 10 degrees C, whereas the lowest value of 6.17 x 10(-4) mole/L was obtained at 40 degrees C. The solubility of sulfur dioxide was correlated as a second-order dependence on temperature. The measured solubility data of sulfur dioxide in chlorine-treated wastewater were found in good agreement with that obtained using the solubility correlation.