An automated flow platform for accurate determination of gas-liquid-solid reaction kinetics

• Published in: Reaction chemistry & engineering 2020-09, Vol.5 (9), p.1751-1758
• Main Authors: Duan, Xiaonan, Tu, Jiacheng, Teixeira, Andrew R, Sang, Le, Jensen, Klavs F, Zhang, Jisong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Automation; Conversion; Data points; Flow velocity; Gas-liquid-solid reactions; Gas-liquid-solid systems; Hydrogenation; Kinetics; Nitrobenzene; Packed beds; Ramps; Reaction kinetics; Reagents; Residence time distribution
• ISSN: 2058-9883; 2058-9883
• DOI: 10.1039/d0re00191k

An automated flow platform based on a tube-in-tube contactor and micro-packed bed reactor is developed to measure the kinetics of gas-liquid-solid hydrogenation reactions. The liquid flowing in the inner tube of the tube-in-tube contactor is rapidly saturated to ensure a constant H 2 concentration before entering the micro-packed bed, which transforms the gas-liquid-solid system into a liquid-solid system. A ramping strategy is adopted in which the continuously varied residence time and the corresponding conversion data are obtained in a single experiment. Two reactions including hydrogenation of α-methylstyrene and nitrobenzene are chosen to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of this automated platform. Varying the flow rate ramping shows that accurate kinetic determination requires a specific range of flow rate ramps. A kinetic curve of conversion versus residence time (more than ten thousand data points) can be obtained in a single experiment within 50 min. The kinetic parameters obtained with this strategy agree well with literature values. The automated flow platform with flow rate ramping enables accurate determination of gas-liquid-solid reaction kinetics with higher efficiency and lower reagent cost compared with other methods. An automated flow platform based on a tube-in-tube contactor and micro-packed bed reactor is developed to measure the kinetics of gas-liquid-solid hydrogenation reactions.