| Abstract: | Transesterification of ethylene carbonate (EC) with methanol (MeOH) was studied in a slurry reactor using various homogeneous and heterogeneous, acidic as well as basic, catalysts. Among all catalysts studied, the weakly basic anion‐exchange resin Amberlyst A‐21 gave more than 95% selectivity towards dimethyl carbonate (based on EC converted). Using this Amberlyst A‐21 as a catalyst, the kinetics for the transesterification reaction was studied in the range of temperature from 363 to 393 K, varying catalyst loading from 11.24 to 44.97 kg m?3 and the molar ratio MeOH:EC being varied between 4:1 and 16:1. The initial rate data were analysed using a power law model to aid process design. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry |
