Ethyl trifluoroacetate formation as a means to recover trifluoroacetic acid from dilute aqueous mixture: reaction, separation and purification

ABSTRACT Recovery of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) by distillation is difficult due to the existence of a high boiling azeotrope. Esterification of TFA to ethyl trifluoroacetate was performed in this work in order to recover the acid from its dilute aqueous mixture. The reaction was carried out in a batch reactor. Parameter estimation was done to obtain a kinetic model by using the experimental data. Reactive distillation studies were performed to explore its feasibility and process intensification. Methodology to obtain almost pure ethyl trifluoroacetate from dilute aqueous reaction mixture was devised.