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Updated: Aug 16, 2025

Organic Structure-directing Agent-free Synthesis for *BEA-type Zeolite Membrane
Published on: February 22, 2020
Improved Esterification of Citric Acid and n-Butanol Using a Dense and Acid-Resistant Beta Zeolite Membrane
Zhengquan Yang1, Mingyu Peng1, Yu Li1
1State-Province Joint Engineering Laboratory of Zeolite Membrane Materials, Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China.
Abstract:
In this work, a dense and acid-resistant beta zeolite membrane was applied to improve the esterification of citric acid and n-butanol, for the first time. Through the continuous removal of the by-product water via pervaporation (PV), the conversion of citric acid was significantly enhanced from 71.7% to 99.2% using p-Toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA) as catalyst. PTSA was a well-known strong acid, and the membrane kept almost no change after PV-esterification, indicating the superior acid resistance of beta zeolite membrane. Compared to the use of acid-resistant MOR zeolite membrane by PV-esterification, a consistently higher conversion of citric acid was obtained using a high-flux beta zeolite membrane. The results showed that high water permeation on the beta zeolite membrane, with good acid resistance, had a strong promoting effect on esterification, leading to an improved conversion. In addition, the citric acid conversion of 97.7% could still be achieved by PV-esterification at a low reaction temperature of 388 K.
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