Empirical Modeling and Optimization of Base Activated Ngbo Catalysts in Esterification Reaction Using Response Surface Methodology

In this work, Box-Behnken’s Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied to study the esterification reaction effectiveness of base-activated Ngbo clay catalyst. The esterification was monitored based on temperature, time duration, amount of reactant, catalyst weight, and particle size. The Box-Behnken’s Response Surface Methodology indicates that the base clay-catalyzed esterification reactions proceed through dual Acid-complex and Alcohol- complex mechanisms, with the alcohol mechanism dominating. The acetic acid and ethanol esterification efficiencies by base-activated Ngbo clay catalyst optimized using RSM models indicated the esterification percentage was ˃99%. The predicted and experimental values under the same conditions showed less than 5% difference, thereby making the Box-Behnken design approach an efficient, effective, and reliable method for the esterification of acetic acid with ethanol. The produced catalyst was optimized using A-One way ANOVA modelled, which indicated that the correlation coefficient of the regression was 0.9940. The result implied that 99.40% of the total variation in the esterification reaction was due to the experimental variables. The obtained data in this study indicated that this process could be applied in the esterification of acetic acid to avoid the drawbacks of corrosion, loss of catalyst, and environmental problems.