Kinetics of De-esterification for Synthesis of Benzoic Acid
BATCH REACTOR
Shane Bulk
Chris Crosley
David McGuire
Max Skula
Yunjing Song
Shriram Sundarraj
Nelson Zhou
155:416 Process Laboratory II
Professor Jerry Sheinbeim
January 28 – February 28, 2014
ABSTRACT
The observed reaction that took place in this experiment was the de-esterification of ethyl benzoate to form benzoic acid. This experiment was used to determine the rate constant k of the synthesis of benzoic acid at different temperatures and ethanol concentrations. The reaction was carried out in a batch reactor, where ethyl benzoate was added to a mixture of water, ethanol, and sodium hydroxide. The agitation speed of the batch reactor was kept
