The side reactions of both steps, esterification and polycondensation, are the same.
However, the esterification is the most important step in the formation of DEG during PET
synthesis through the direct esterification process. The kinetic parameters of reaction (7) has been
published by Chen and that for reaction (8) by Chang et al. following equation (2.4), as shown in
Table (2.8) are used in this project for both stages of the process.