We have recently reviewed some of the reactions that could benefit from catalytic distilllation (Podrebarac et al., 1997a). The reaction considered in this paper is the base-catalysed aldol condensation of acetone to produce 4-methyl-4-hydroxy-2-pentanone, or diacetone alcohol (DAA). DAA is a useful chemical
intermediate and an environmentally friendly cleaning solvent which is being marketed as an alternative to acetone (Kirschner, 1994). The formation of DAA is
strongly limited by equilibrium, as demonstrated by the data in Table 1. The rate of DAA formation is * Corresponding author. Tel.: 519 885 1211; fax: 519 746
4979; e-mail: fttng@cape.uwaterloo.ca. second order with respect to [acetone], and the rate at which DAA reverts to acetone is Þrst order with respect to [DAA] (Maple and Allerhand, 1987; Zhang et al., 1988).