Making Ethyl Ethanoate
Making Ethyl Ethanoate
Alternative methods of production
To compare the effectiveness of producing ethyl ethanoate in the experiment I completed to other alternative methods I am going to use the atom economies.
Atom economy = molar mass of useful product/molar mass of all reactants *100.
Alternative 1
2CH3CHO CH3COOC2H5
This experiment would produce an atom economy of 100%, as there is one reactant making one product meaning there are no waste products produced. Although this experiment would be extremely efficient in producing ethyl ethanoate, it is a dangerous experiment to conduct therefore I would not recommend the company to use this method to produce ethyl ethanoate as the risk is too high.
Alternative 2
CH3COCl + C2H5OH CH3COOC2H5 + HCl
The atom economy of this experiment is 70.68%, which is a good atom economy however the experiment I conducted using a carboxylic acid and alcohol produced an atom economy of 83%. That means this experiment is less efficient than the one I carried out so it would not be beneficial for the company to use this method (alternative 2) to produce the ethyl ethanoate as there is a more efficient method to produce it.
Alternative 3
(CH3CO)2O + C2H5OH CH3COOC2H5 + CH3COOH
The atom economy of this final alternative is 59.4% which is the lowest of all 4 methods of production. With the lowest atom economy I would not recommend the company to use this method as it is the most wasteful meaning they would potentially lose a lot of money if they choose to use this method.
Following this experiment and investigation into alternative methods of producing ethyl ethanoate, I can conclude the experiment I completed was the most efficient, excluding alternative 1 which is too dangerous for the company to use as a way of producing ethyl ethanoate although it did have the highest atom economy by 17%. Therefore, I would recommend the company to use CH3COOH + C2H5OH CH3COOC2H5 + H20 as their method of producing
Alternative methods of production
To compare the effectiveness of producing ethyl ethanoate in the experiment I completed to other alternative methods I am going to use the atom economies.
Atom economy = molar mass of useful product/molar mass of all reactants *100.
Alternative 1
2CH3CHO CH3COOC2H5
This experiment would produce an atom economy of 100%, as there is one reactant making one product meaning there are no waste products produced. Although this experiment would be extremely efficient in producing ethyl ethanoate, it is a dangerous experiment to conduct therefore I would not recommend the company to use this method to produce ethyl ethanoate as the risk is too high.
Alternative 2
CH3COCl + C2H5OH CH3COOC2H5 + HCl
The atom economy of this experiment is 70.68%, which is a good atom economy however the experiment I conducted using a carboxylic acid and alcohol produced an atom economy of 83%. That means this experiment is less efficient than the one I carried out so it would not be beneficial for the company to use this method (alternative 2) to produce the ethyl ethanoate as there is a more efficient method to produce it.
Alternative 3
(CH3CO)2O + C2H5OH CH3COOC2H5 + CH3COOH
The atom economy of this final alternative is 59.4% which is the lowest of all 4 methods of production. With the lowest atom economy I would not recommend the company to use this method as it is the most wasteful meaning they would potentially lose a lot of money if they choose to use this method.
Following this experiment and investigation into alternative methods of producing ethyl ethanoate, I can conclude the experiment I completed was the most efficient, excluding alternative 1 which is too dangerous for the company to use as a way of producing ethyl ethanoate although it did have the highest atom economy by 17%. Therefore, I would recommend the company to use CH3COOH + C2H5OH CH3COOC2H5 + H20 as their method of producing