Abstract

The main aim of the experiment was to find the reaction rate parameters
such as the rate constant, order of reaction, etc of the reaction between
ethyl acetate with sodium hydroxide to produce ethanol and sodium acetate.
The saponification reaction was carried out in three different reactors: Batch,
LFR and CSTR. The order of the reaction was found to be 2 whereas the order
of NaOH and ethyl acetate was found to be 1. The rate constants found were

1.0588

L
mol . s

(= 63.258

L
0
mol . min ) @ T = 40.8 C and 0.1245

L
mol . s

(=

L
7.47 mol . min ) @ T = 20.60C. The rate constant of the reaction that was

found by carrying out in the LFR was 6.72

L
mol . min

average rate of constant for the CSTR was 13.43

@ T = 21.30C. The

L
mol . min

@T=

36.50C.However, the rate constant for CSTR was eliminated since the results
were not consistent with literature. The Activation energy was found to be
84536.8 J/mol whereas the pre-exponential factor was found to be 7.48 x
1015 L/mol.Among all the reactors, the most accurate results were found
using the LFR, followed by the Batch and CSTR being the least accurate.
This experiment aims to find the rate law parameters for the saponification
of ethyl acetate (EA) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution, to determine
the effects of reaction temperature and reactants flow rate on saponification
process in continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and to compare the
performance of constant volume batch reactor (CVBR) and CSTR in handling
this chemical reaction. Chemical Reactor Trainer CE 310 incorporated with a
combined temperature and conductivity sensor was used to study this

reaction. Rate law was determined through differential method of analysis

and performance comparison was made on the basis of the conversion of
NaOH solution. was proposed to describe this saponifaction process. In CSTR,
a 5% of increment in conversion was reported when saponification process
took place at 35.6C as compared to the one at 28.7C. Moreover, as the
flow rate of both reactants increased from 5.4 mL/min to 7.4 mL/min, the
conversion declined by approximately 14%. Lastly, conversion achieved in
CVRT was 11% higher than in CSTR for saponification proceeded at 35C. 1.0
Introduction Saponification of ethyl acetate (EA) and sodium hydroxide
(NaOH) solution is a homogeneous reaction as it only involves liquid phase.
Products formed in this reaction are ethanol and sodium acetate. Sodium
acetate possesses both lipophilic and hydrophilic behaviour and this makes it
a wonderful surfactant. One can easily find surfactant in a wide range of
industrial applications especially in hygiene and toiletries products. The
major concern of a chemical reaction is its reaction rate . It shows how fast a
number of moles of one chemical species are being consumed to form
another chemical species. Sometimes, it is known as rate law which is a
product of a temperature-dependent term and a composition-dependent
term. General form of the rate law used in this experiment is illustrated as
follows and its derivation is shown in Appendix 1. where = rate constant, 1
Background image of page 1
Saponification of ethyl acetate (EA) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution is a
homogeneous reaction as it only involves liquid phase. Products formed in this
reaction are ethanol and sodium acetate. Sodium acetate possesses both lipophilic
and hydrophilic behaviour and this makes it a wonderful surfactant. One can easily
find surfactant in a wide range of industrial applications especially in hygiene and
toiletries products. The major concern of a chemical reaction is its reaction rate. It
shows how fast a number of moles of one chemical species are being consumed to
form another chemical species. Sometimes, it is known as rate law which is a
product of a temperature-dependent term and a composition-dependent term.
General form of the rate law used in this experiment is illustrated as follows and its
derivation is shown in Appendix 1. where = rate constant, 1