Kinetics and Modeling of Fatty Alcohol Ethoxylation in an Industrial Spray Loop Reactor

The kinetics of the ethoxylation of fatty alcohols catalyzed by potassium hydroxide was studied to obtain the rate constants for modeling of the industrial process. Experimental data obtained in a lab‐scale semibatch autoclave reactor were used to evaluate kinetic and equilibrium parameters. The kinetic model was employed to model the performance of an industrial‐scale spray tower reactor for fatty alcohol ethoxylation. The reactor model considers that mass transfer and reaction occur independently in two distinct zones of the reactor. Good agreement between the model predictions and real data was found. These findings confirm the reliability of the kinetic and reactor model for simulating fatty alcohol ethoxylation processes under industrial conditions. The kinetics of ethoxylation of fatty alcohols catalyzed by potassium hydroxide was determined for industrial‐grade lauryl alcohol in a laboratory‐scale reactor in the range of 130–180 °C to obtain the rate constants for modeling of the industrial process. The findings confirm the reliability of the kinetics and reactor model for simulating fatty alcohol ethoxylation processes under industrial conditions.