Abstract

ORDONEZ SEPULVEDA, Iván Darío  and  MARTINEZ REY, Ramiro. Modelling of synthesis of ketene on a foam monolith reactor. Rev. ion [online]. 2011, vol.24, n.2, pp.37-44. ISSN 0120-100X.

This paper proposes a pseudo-phenomenological model for the catalytic synthesis of ketene from acetic acid on foam monoliths using classical modeling techniques of fixed reactors. This synthesis is a competing reactions network where dehydration of acetic acid promotes formation of ketene. A preliminary experimental work was designed to determine a set of favorable conditions for this synthesis. These experiments consist of: 1) experiments without chemical reaction for the estimation of heat transport parameters 2) experiments using the Koros-Nowak criterion for determining the presence of external diffusional limitations 3) experiments in the presence of chemical reaction for the estimation of the kinetic parameters of reactions network. These experiments allowed deriving that a two-dimensional, non-isothermal and pseudo-homogeneous model was the most appropriate model to represent the monolithic type reactor. The reactor model was coupled to a kinetic model taking into account the three main reactions of the network of reactions (dehydration, decarboxylation and acid cetonization). At resulting model, a system of partial differential equations, six unknown kinetic parameters and four thermal parameters was fixed. The results showed that this adjustment was acceptable and the proposed 2D model is adequate to represent the conversion, selectivity and the temperature profile experienced inside of monolith. Although this model suffers from the need to find adjustable parameters, at least, it is shown that conventional methods are applicable to reactors silica monoliths.

Keywords : transport phenomena; silica; partial differential equations.

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