Gas-liquid sulfonation in T-shaped microchannel for DBSA synthesis and process optimization with response surface method

• Published in: Chemical engineering and processing 2022-04, Vol.174, p.108890, Article 108890
• Main Authors: Yuan, Mei, Feng, Haibo, Zhang, Wei, Zheng, Jieru, Zhang, Kun, Kong, Xiangxu, Han, Nianchen, Dong, Jinxiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid; Gas phase sulfur trioxide; Microchannel; Sulfonation
• ISSN: 0255-2701; 1873-3204
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cep.2022.108890

•Gas SO3 is firstly used to synthesize DBSA in a microreaction system.•The order of the effect of variables on yield is the total gas flow > SO3/DDB ratio > reaction temperature > SO3 concentration.•The highest DBSA yield reached 99.45 mol% under the optimal conditions via RSM. This study investigates gas-liquid sulfonation for dodecyl benzene sulfonic acid (DBSA) synthesis in the T-shaped microchannel under different operating conditions of temperature, sulfur trioxide (SO3) concentration, the molar ratio of SO3 to dodecylbenzene, and total gas flow. Four factors with three-level Box-Behnken response surface design (BBD) are used to investigate and optimize the effect of process variables on DBSA production. The response surface method (RSM) model shows that the correlation coefficient is 0.971. The result is significant under the optimum conditions of temperature (56 °C), molar ratio of SO3 to dodecylbenzene (1.3), SO3 concentration (7.6 vt%), and total gas flow rate (310 mL min−1). The actual yield of the product is 99.78 mol%, basically consistent with the predicted yield of 99.45 mol%. [Display omitted]