SIGNIFICANCE OF OLIGOMERIZATION REACTIONS IN TRANSESTERIFICATION OF DIMETHYL TEREPHTHALATE WITH ETHYLENE-GLYCOL

Experimental investigations dealing with and mathematical models proposed for the kinetics of the transesterification of dimethyl terephthalate with ethylene glycol were critically reviewed. The models were found to be inadequate, while the investigations were found to be entirely lacking in information about the significance of oligomerization reactions. The significance of these reactions was deduced to be negligible by carrying out an analysis of the kinetics of possible ester interchange and transesterification reactions by use of data on methanol reported in the reviewed literature. This analysis was made possible by the application of numerical quadrature routines in testing the assumed models by the integral method. The present analysis also shows that the application of numerical analysis techniques is an efficient and effective method of testing relatively complicated rate models.