How might the methyl salicylate synthesis be different if phosphoric acid was used as the catalyst

it's filtration, but this is an assumption so my apologies if i got this

a. energy is absorbed in the reaction.

if in a given reaction the energy of products is greater than the energy of reactants it means that reaction is endothermic and during the reaction, the energy is absorbed by reactants. in an endothermic reaction, the products have more stored chemical energy than the reactants. and in this reaction the reactants are more stable than products before the compounds with less energy are always more stable.

the answer is c

tell me if wrong