Continuous synthesis of methyl oleate and its kinetics

Methyl oleate was synthesized continuously in a packed column reactor with cationic exchange resin as catalyst.The methyl alcohol and oleic acid were mixed forming a solution and the solution is fed into the top of the reactor.Factors that influencing the reaction were investigated.Result showed the optimal condition are:catalyst loaded 20 g,mole ratio of methyl alcohol to oleic acid 2∶1,reaction temperature 60 ℃,residence time 40 min.Under such conditions,the conversion can achieve 99.43% of the oleic acid.The reaction kinetics was studied at temperature of 30 ℃,40 ℃,50 ℃ and 60 ℃.The forward and backward reaction rate constants were got by simulating the experiment data to a pseudo-homogeneous phase model.The relationship between the reaction rate and temperature follows Arrhenius equation while the activation energy of the forward reaction is 60.687 kJ/mol.