Effect of pulse electric field on esterification of propionic acid and ethanol

The effects of pulse electric field (PEF) on ethyl propionate concention, rate constant and activation energy were studied in this paper.The ethyl propionate concention was analyzed using a gas chromatography system.The results indicate that esterification could be promoted by PEF treatment under appropriate condition.The higher the PEF intensity applied, the higher the ethyl propionate concention and rate constant were.The reaction order was 2.When PEF intensity were 0, 6.6, 13.3, 20.0 kV/cm, it was calculated that the activation energy for the esterification was 77.05, 72.60, 62.85, 62.49 kJ/mol, respectively.