ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews applications for acetals in various areas with emphasis in perfumes and flavors and as additives to fuel diesel. It addresses the methodology for process development including kinetics in a batch reactor, fixed bed adsorptive, and simulated moving bed reactor. Almost all industrial applications to oxygenates synthesis have adopted acidic ion exchange resins as catalysts. Ion exchange resins have functional groups tied to insoluble molecules; those groups contain hydrogen or hydroxyl ions to act as acid or alkaline catalysts, respectively, and are able to catalyze many reactions normally carried out in homogeneous systems. Similar to etherification and esterification reactions, acetalization has a limited conversion by nature of the equilibrium reaction. The use of the chemicals, mainly acetaldehyde and acetals, requires extra precautions. Thermodynamic properties, such as the enthalpy change of the reaction and equilibrium constant, are important for process design. Commonly, chemical processes were designed with reaction and separation units in series.
