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Transesterification of propylene glycol methyl ether by reactive simulated moving bed chromatography using homogeneous catalyst

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Abstract

A reactive chromatography process was investigated for a transesterification reaction of propylene glycol methyl ether (DOWANOL™ PM) using a homogeneous catalyst, a sodium alkoxide. In the proposed process, fresh catalyst is supplied with desorbent, which allows independent optimization of the adsorption properties of the stationary phase. Deactivation of catalytic activity can be avoided, which had been found to be the bottleneck in our previous study for heterogeneous catalysis. To model and optimize this process, a series of batch reaction experiments, and pulse injection tests with a chromatographic column with and without reaction were carried out. From the experimental data, equilibrium and kinetic parameters were estimated using the inverse method. Using this model, a simulated moving bed reactor was designed that achieves a conversion of 95% using the homogeneous catalysis concept.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support from The Dow Chemical Company is gratefully acknowledged.

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Author notes

  1. Yoshiaki Kawajiri

    Present address: Materials Process Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho 1, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8603, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0100, USA

    Jungmin Oh, Andreas S. Bommarius & Yoshiaki Kawajiri

  2. The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI, 48667, USA

    Balamurali Sreedhar, Megan E. Donaldson, Timothy C. Frank & Alfred K. Schultz

Authors
  1. Jungmin Oh
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  2. Balamurali Sreedhar
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  3. Megan E. Donaldson
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  4. Timothy C. Frank
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  5. Alfred K. Schultz
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  6. Andreas S. Bommarius
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  7. Yoshiaki Kawajiri
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Correspondence to Yoshiaki Kawajiri.

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Oh, J., Sreedhar, B., Donaldson, M.E. et al. Transesterification of propylene glycol methyl ether by reactive simulated moving bed chromatography using homogeneous catalyst. Adsorption 24, 309–324 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10450-018-9941-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10450-018-9941-6

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