SusChemE 2015
International Conference on Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
October 8-9, 2015, Hotel Lalit, Mumbai
Synthesis of Solid Acid Catalyst from Waste Cotton Plant Ash for Esterification
Reaction: A Green and Recyclable Catalyst
Khudsange C. R.1 and Wasewar K. L.2
1, 2
Department of Chemical Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
E-mail addresses: crkhudsange@gmail.com and k_wasewar@rediffmail.com
Introduction:
Esterification reaction is widely used in industrial processes to produce the esters of various categories. The reaction is
catalysed by either homogeneous (such as H2SO4, HCL etc.) or heterogeneous catalysts (solid acid catalyst of zeolite, ZrO2,
Amberlyst etc.). The use of homogeneous catalysts encounter the problems of handling and transportation, corrosion,
recycle and hazardous to environment. To overcome this problem solid acid catalysts are employed. In this work, cotton
plant ash solid acid (CPASA) catalyst was prepared from waste cotton plant ash (CPA) with high catalytic activity in the
esterification reaction of butyric acid with n-butanol to produce n-butyl butyrate.
Materials and Methods:
Materials: Cotton plant ash was collected from farm, sulphuric acid (98%), methanesulfonic acid (98%), n-butanol (99%),
n-butyric acid (99%) were purchased from Merck India Ltd. and used without purification.
Catalyst Synthesis: Received cotton plant ash was thermally activated at 900 0C for 3 hr followed by chemical activation in
glass rector by stirring 5M aqueous solution of sulphuric acid in the ratio of 1:2 (CPA:sulphuric acid) for 5 days at 1100C
followed by washing for complete removal of soluble ionic species (SO 42-, NO3- etc.) and dried the product at 1200C for one
day. The resulted solid acid catalyst was calcined at 5500C for 5 hr in muffle furnace.
Characterization: Cotton plant ash samples were analysed by elemental XRF, CPASA catalyst is characterized by XRD,
FT-IR and SEM-EDAX
Results and Discussion: To measure the catalytic performance of CPASA catalyst, esterification of butyric acid with nbutanol over CPASA catalyst was carried out at 800C, 900C and 1000C for 6 hr giving high conversion up to 82.7%. It is
also carried out with different CPASA catalyst concentration and molar ratio (butanol/butyric acid). It is found that as the
catalyst concentration and molar ratio increases, the conversion of butyric acid is increases. CPASA gives good conversion
after recycling the catalyst and used it for the process up to three cycles.
Conclusion: The study provides CPASA catalyst as a green, efficient and recyclable solid acid catalyst having good
catalytic activity. The specific surface area of CPA was enhanced after thermal and chemical treatment using sulphuric acid.
Esterification of butyric acid with n-butanol over CPASA catalyst gives high conversion. It concluded that thermal,
chemical treatment can create high acid activity over cotton plant ash providing future application in heterogeneous catalyst.