Esterification of formic acid, acrylic acid and methacrylic acid with cyclohexene in batch and distillation column reactors: ion-exchange resins as catalysts

Characterization of Korean Distilled Liquor, Soju, Using Chemical, HS-SPME-GC-MS, and Sensory Descriptive Analysis

The volatile compounds and sensory profiles of 18 different types of distilled soju, chosen with regard to various raw materials and distillation methods (atmospheric vs. vacuum), were explored using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and descriptive analysis. General chemical properties such as pH, total acidity (TA), total soluble solids (°Brix), and lactic acid concentration were also determined. A total of 56 volatile compounds, comprising 31 esters, 11 alcohols, 1 acid, 4 aldehydes, 3 ketones, and 6 miscellaneous compounds, were identified. From the principal component analysis (PCA) of the volatile data, samples made using atmospheric distillation such as MSO and PJU showed a clear difference from decompressed distillation samples. Based on the PCA of the sensory data, there was also a clear distinction between samples by their distillation method. To explore relationships among chemical, volatile, and sensory data sets, multiple factor analysis (MFA) was applied. Yeasty and earthy flavors showed a close relationship with 1-nonanol, octatonic acid, and longer-chain esters such as ethyl phenylacetate and ethyl tetradecanoate, and with chemical parameters such as TA, °Brix, and lactic acid.

Intensification of the Production of 2-Ethyl-Hexyl Acrylate: Batch Kinetics and Reactive Distillation

The reaction of acrylic acid and 2-ethyl-1 hexanol was explored in this work with the intent of process intensification. In order to assess the effect of important parameters on the course of reaction, this work initially conducted batch reactor experiments. Reaction conditions in the batch reactor for a specific conversion (~ 30 %) were obtained. A kinetic model was then obtained through regression to arrive at a rate expression that is later used in process development. Experiments were performed in the reactive distillation (RD) environment in batch mode, which showed substantial increase in conversion (~ 80 %) indicating the applicability of RD. Further, this work performed simulation in the RD environment to assess process intensification. Simulations show that it is possible to obtain complete conversion of the acid.

A new approach to catalytic degradation of dimethyl phthalate by a macroporous OH-type strongly basic anion exchange resin

In the present study, a novel approach was developed to remove dimethyl phthalate (DMP), a representative phthalic acid ester (PAE) pollutant, from an aqueous solution using a macroporous OH-type strong base anion exchange resin D201-OH. As compared to the traditional catalyst aqueous NaOH, D201-OH displayed much higher catalytic efficiency for DMP hydrolytic degradation. Almost 100% of DMP was hydrolyzed to far less toxic phthalic acid (PA) in the presence of D201-OH, while only about 29% of DMP was converted to PA in the presence of NaOH under the identical amount of hydroxyl anions in the reaction system. More attractively, the hydrolysis product PA also can be simultaneously removed by the solid basic polymer D201-OH through a preferable anion exchange process, while NaOH induced hydrolysis products were still left in solution. The underlying mechanism for the hydrolytic degradation and simultaneous ion exchange removal process was proposed. Fixed-bed column hydrolytic degradation and ion exchange removal tests indicate that DMP can be completely converted to PA and subsequently removed from water without any further process, with pH values of the effluent being around 6 constantly. The exhausted D201-OH was amenable to an efficient regeneration by 3 bed volumes (BV) of NaOH solution (2 mol/L) for repeated use without any efficiency loss. The results reported herein indicated that D201-OH-induced catalytic degradation and removal is a promising approach for PAEs treatment in waters.