Reactive separation of β-bromoethylbenzene from α-β-bromoethylbenzene mixtures: A Zn2+-mediated radical polymerization mechanism

A Zn2+-induced reactive separation method for the purification of β-bromoethylbenzene from α-β-bromoethylbenzene mixtures is discovered, where the selective decomposition of α-bromoethylbenzene follows a radical mechanism. Zn2+ facilitates the homolysis of...

Optimization and experimental design by response surface method for reactive extraction of glutaric acid

Glutaric acid is an attractive chemical compound which can be used for the manufacturing of polyesters, polyamides, and polyols. It can be produced by the synthesis (chemical method) and fermentation (biological method) process. Glutaric acid is presented with the lowest quantity in the fermentation broth and industrial waste streams. The separation methods of glutaric acid are difficult, costly, and non-environment friendly from fermentation broth. Reactive separation is a simple, cheapest, and environment-friendly process for the recovery of carboxylic acid. Which can be employed for the separation of glutaric acid with lower cost and environment-friendly process. In this study, response surface methodology (RSM) was used as a mathematical technique to optimize and experimental design for investigation of the reactive separation of glutaric acid from the aqueous phase. As per RSM study, 20 experiments with different independent variables such as concentration of glutaric acid, % v/v of trioctylamine, and pH for recovery of glutaric acid were performed. The optimum condition with maximum efficiency (η) 92.03% for 20% trioctylamine and pH = 3 at 0.08 mol/L of glutaric acid initial concentration were observed. The lower concentration of trioctylamine provides sufficient extraction efficiency of glutaric acid. This method can also be used for the separation from fermentation broth because a lower concentration of trioctylamine which makes this process environment-friendly. The optimization condition-defined quadratic response surface model is significant with R 2 of 0.9873. The independent variables defined the effect on the extraction efficiency of glutaric acid. This data can be used for the separation of glutaric acid from industries waste and fermentation broth.

Contribution of the Reactive Separation Process to Methanol Recovery and Biodiesel Characteristics

The chemical reaction that occurs in the biodiesel processing is a type of reversible reaction between oil and methanol. Therefore, to increase the conversion of the reaction, the amount of methanol used is more than the stoichiometric equilibrium. The excess methanol is often difficult to recover after washing biodiesel. Determine of the contribution of the reactive separation process to methanol recovery and biodiesel characteristics are the focus of this study. The transesterification reaction process is carried out in reactive separation equipment, using palm oil as raw material, NaOH, and super base CaO as the catalyst. The results showed that the reactive separation process could recover methanol as much as 55.88% for the reaction process using a NaOH catalyst, and 52.94% for the reaction process using a super base CaO catalyst. The biodiesel characteristics produced to meet the criteria set out in the Indonesian National Standard.