Application of taguchi method for optimization of polyol ester production by esterification of neopentyl glycol with hexanoic acid

Abstract

Production of polyol ester from esterification of hexanoic acid (HA) and neopentyl glycol (NPG) was investigated. An optimization experiment, using a Taguchi L9 experimental layout, was used to examine the effect of temperature, pressure, HA:NPG ratio and catalyst amount. The effects of pressure (0.5, 25 and 50 kPa); temperature (423, 453 and 483 K); catalyst amount (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 % w/w) and HA:NPG ratio (1.5:1, 3:1 and 6:1) were investigated and found to have impacts on the reaction. The percentage contribution of each factors are 43.9, 38.8, 4.3 and 12.9 %, respectively. At the optimal reaction conditions of 423 K, 0.5 kPa, sulfuric acid catalyst 0.5 % w/w and HA:NPG ratio (3:1) more than 99 % w/w neopentyl glycol ester was obtained. Confirmation experiments were performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach and characterization of neopentyl glycol ester was characterized using FTIR and 1H NMR.