Kinetics of esterification reaction of acrylic acid and isobutene to tert-butyl acrylate

Esterification reaction of acrylic acid with isobutene to tert-butyl acrylate over a mesoporous SO₃H-SBA-15 was investigated to obtain its intrinsic kinetics for industrial scale-up. The kinetics data were collected in a batch tank reactor after eliminating the influences of external and internal diffusion with a stirring speed over 400 r/min and catalyst particle size between 0.15 and 0.18 mm. Based on the power law equation, the kinetics parameters were estimated by the nonlinear least square method. The activation energy of the forward and reverse esterification reaction are 33.8 and 61.7 kJ/mol, and that of the forward and reverse isobutene dimerization are 42.7 and 91.6 kJ/mol, respectively. The results agree well with the experimental data.