Kinetic Study for the Synthesis of Diethyl Maleate over Cation Exchange Resin Indion 730

Kinetic study of the esterification of maleic acid with ethanol has been carried out over cation exchange resin Indion 730, Indion 225H, AmberliteIR120, Amberlyst 35 wet. Indion 730 has shown the higher conversion of maleic acid than other catalyst. Effect of various parameters such as speed of agitation (600- 1000 rpm), particle size (0.172 – 0.834 mm), mole ratio (maleic acid to ethanol, 1:4 – 1:10), catalyst loading (50-120 kg/m3 of reactant volume), temperature (323-353 K) has been studied. A psudo homogeneous model has been applied to validate the experimental data at different temperature and activation energy was found to be 12.54 kcal/mol.