, Mohd Zailani Abu Bakar

Abstract-- Esterification is one of the popular processes in chemical engineering. Various important products are produceD from this reaction and their applications are varies. Esterification process can be classified as exothermic reaction where in every reaction; a few amount of heat will be released to the surrounding. Hence it is a quite simple reaction; the study on heat releases should not be exceptional. In this study, two different parameters (effect of different catalyst concentration and different operating temperature) are applied to determine the amount of heat release and the possibility of the reaction in creating runaway reaction. The study has selected an esterification reaction between acetic acid and methanol because of their well known reaction and it is a moderated exothermic process. Index Term-- esterification reaction, exothermic reaction, runaway reaction I