Investigation of Optimal Esterification Conditions of Lactic Acid with Butanol by Using Response Surface Methodology

Esterification reaction of lactic acid with butanol to produce butyl lactate and its optimal conditions were investigated. Cyclohexane was used as entrainer to remove water to promote reaction yield. Catalyst of NaHSO4 was also used to increase reaction rate. Reaction parameters of butanol/lactic acid ratio, cyclohexane/lactic acid ratio, catalyst amount, and reaction time were optimized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Results showed that the butanol/lactic acid ratio was the most significant factor for esterification yield while interactions between butanol/lactic acid ratio and cyclohexane/lactic acid ratio, butanol/lactic acid ratio, and reaction time were less significant. The correlation coefficient between predicted values and experiment values was 0.985. The optimal conditions for the experiment are: ethanol/lactic acid ratio 5:1, cyclohexane/lactic acid ratio 1:1, catalyst loading 1.5%, and incubation period 3 hours. The esterification yield reaches 99.8% under these conditions.