Kinetics of the transesterification of dimethyl terephthalate with 1,4-butanediol

The kinetics of transesterification of dimethyl terephthalate with 1,4-butanediol have been studied in a semibatch reactor under non-isothermal conditions. Also, the kinetics of tetrahydrofuran production by side reactions were studied. Models were fitted by using an algorithm of parameter estimation in differential equations based on the Gauss-Newton method. It was found that the transesterification reaction had an overall order of three, with one order each for dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), 1,4-butanediol (BD) and catalyst concentration, whereas the formation of tetrahydrofuran (THF) involved reactions with fractional reaction order.