Synthesis of tert-amyl Ethyl Ether for Gasoline Additive

AbstractA series of experiments were carried out in a batch reactor at the temperature range of 313-343K to study the synthesis of tert-amyl ethyl ether from ethanol (EtOH) and 2-methyl-1-butene (2M1B) catalyzed by the NKC-9 ion-exchange resin. The suitable reaction pressure was obtained by using the method of the Gibbs free energy minimization. The activity coefficients of each component were accurately calculated using the Wilson method, then, the equilibrium constants was obtained. The effect of catalyst size, stirring rate, temperature and EtOH/2M1B molar ratio was investigated at the chosen pressure, respectively. A kinetic model which considered the variation of each component volume was established. The method of nonlinear least square combined with genetic algorithm (NLS-GA) was proposed to estimate the kinetic constant in the forward direction. Results indicated that simulated kinetics results were agreed well with the experimental data