AIM

This experiment is conducted as to determine the order of saponification reaction of

ethyl acetate, Et(Ac) with sodium hydroxide, NaOH in a continuous stirred tank reactor
(CSTR), and to determine the effect of temperature on reaction rate constant, k for the
saponification reaction. Next objective is to determine reaction rate constant, k for
different residence time and temperature, and lastly is to determine the activation energy
for the saponification reaction.

DISCUSSION
This experiment is carried out by using sodium hydroxide, NaOH and ethyl acetate,
Et(Ac) through saponification reaction between them. For this experiment, continuous
stirred tank reactor, CSTR is used to carry out this experiment, which is to determine the
order of saponification reaction and to determine the reaction rate constant, k. Time
calculated for taking each samples is measured by the interval of 5 minutes, for 25
minutes. The temperature taken are 35C, 40C, and 45C respectively.
The saponification process is the hydrolysis of an ester under basic conditions to
form an alcohol and the salt of a carboxylic acid. The stoichiometry equation can be
shown as below:
CH3COOC2H5 + NaOH CH3COONa + C2H5OH
Sodium hydroxide, NaOH is used for titrating purpose to calculate the amount of
hydrochloric acid, HCl quenching for the reaction, accompanied by phenolphthalein to
act as an indicator for the mixture to be neutralized. The graph are plotted by using trial
and error to find the order of the reaction. From graphs and calculation shown before, this
saponification reaction is second order reaction, since by plotting a graph of 1/C A vs time
shows a straight line slope. Therefore, for finding reaction rate constant for this
experiment is shown by the following equation:

dCA
kCA 2
dt

The slope of the graph represents the reaction rate constant, k. Hence, by calculating the
gradient of the slope from the graph, reaction rate constant, k for different residence time
is found as 0.07079 L/mol.min.
Reaction rate constant for the respective temperature also are calculated from the
graph plotted with 1/CA versus time for the respective temperature. For the temperature of
30C, from the slope of the graph, k value is turned out to be 0.0144 L/mol.min. For
temperature of 40C, from the slope of the graph, k is calculated as 0.0191 L/mol.min. For
temperature of 45C, from the slope of the graph, k is 0.02075 L/mol.min. From the result
shown, we can conclude that as temperature increases, the k value increase.
To determine the effect of temperature on reaction rate constant, k for the
saponification reaction, a graph of ln k versus 1/temperature is plotted. From the graph
shown, as temperature increase, the reaction rate constant, k increase. This is acceptable
since according to Arrhenius equation, which is

ln

k2 E 1 1
( )
k1 R T 1 T 2

as temperature increases, k value also will increase. From the graph, the value of
activation energy also can be determined from the slope of the graph. By calculating the
gradient of the slope, the activation energy value is found to be 272.393 J/mol. This may
be right because as activation energy increases, temperature increases. By using such a
small value of temperature, the value of activation energy is also small.
Continuous flow stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) are widely used in chemical
engineering industries. This reactor works for all fluids, liquids, gases and slurries, and
runs at a steady state with continuous flow of reactants and products. This reactor, like
other reactors, also has advantages and disadvantages for using it. Some of the

advantages are it is a continuous operation, good temperature control, low operating cost
and easy to clean, whereas some of the disadvantages are by-passing and channeling
possible with poor agitation, and has lowest conversion per unit volume.