1. Technical University of Berlin, Institute of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering Group, Sekr. TC 8, Stra?e des 17. Juni 124‐128, D‐10623 Berlin, GermanyTechnical University of Berlin, Institute of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering Group, Sekr. TC 8, Stra?e des 17. Juni 124‐128, D‐10623 Berlin, Germany.;2. Equipolymers GmbH, A Dow and PIC Joint Venture Company, Building F‐17, D‐06258 Schkopau, Germany;3. Technical University of Berlin, Institute of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering Group, Sekr. TC 8, Stra?e des 17. Juni 124‐128, D‐10623 Berlin, Germany
Abstract:
The esterification kinetics of terephthalic acid (TPA) and ethylene glycol (EG) in poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) synthesis were studied using a semibatch reactor. Rate constants were optimized by data fitting with the oligomeric chain length, the fraction of carboxyl groups in the terminal groups (α) and the water generation curve for different EG/TPA feed ratios. The influence of the TPA particle size distribution on the solid‐liquid mass transfer rate and on acid conversion (ε) was investigated. It was observed that conversion became more sensitive towards TPA particle size as the EG/TPA feed ratio was lowered. It is advantageous to use the model based on TPA particle size for mass transfer limited esterification reactors. The effect of the monomer feed ratio on conversion, chain length and system heterogeneity can be predicted with this model.
