The effect of pressure on the reaction was tested by varying it
from 14.7 to 800 psi (or 1–54 atm) under the experimental conditions of 25C, acetone:glycerol:ethanol molar ratio of 2:1:1, WHSV
of 4 h
1
with Amberlyst 36 Wet catalyst, for 4 h time-on-stream). It
was found that reaction pressure has a negligible effect on the
product yield, as expected for liquid phase reactions. In this study,
experiments as reported here were all conducted under elevated
pressure (600 psi) to maintain liquid phase of the reaction mixture
during reaction. At 600 psi and the maximum operating temperature and the maximum acetone concentration in the feed used in
this work, the maximum amount of molecules in gas phase was
calculated to be very small (