Homogeneous surface, reaction rate

For the first assumption, the value of Kw for the shift appears to be too high. It must be this high because it is necessary to make C02 appear while both C02 and CO are being consumed rapidly by methanation. The data may be tested to see if the indicated rate appears unreasonable from the standpoint of mass transfer to the gross catalyst surface. Regardless of the rate of diffusion in catalyst pores or the surface reaction rate, it is unlikely that the reaction can proceed more rapidly than material can reach the gross pill surface unless the reaction is a homogeneous one that is catalyzed by free radicals strewn from the catalyst into the gas stream. 

Here the pseudo-homogeneous rate r is related to the surface reaction rate r" through the area of active catalyst per unit volume of reactor. Assuming further a plug-flow regime, the integration of the mass balance equation for this simple rate expression gives an expression for CO conversion ... 

In catalytic reactors we assume that there is no reaction in the fluid phase, and all reaction occurs on the surface of the catalyst. The surface reaction rate has the units of moles per unit area of catalyst per unit time, which we will call r". We need a homogeneous rate r to insert in the mass balances, and we can write this as... 

The amount of R in the fluid phase now depends not only on the relative rates between Al, Rl, SI, as in homogeneous kinetics, but also on the relative rates of desorption to reaction. For irreversible surface reactions, and very slow desorption rates, no fluid phase R will even be observed 1A detailed experimental verification of this general type of behavior was provided by Dwyer, Eagleton, Wei, and Zahner [17] for the successive deuterium exchanges of neopentane. They obtained drastic changes in product distributions as the ratio (surface reaction rate)/(desorption rate) increase. 

When the surface reaction rate constant is multiplied by the specific internal area, one gets the volumetric reaction rate constant per unit catalyst volume, which is analogous to the reaction rate constant of a homogeneous reaction ... 

The surface reaction rate constant, e.g., for a first order surface reaction, should be expressed per unit of surface area of the carrier, so that its dimension is m/s compare eq. (5.9). The product of the surface reaction rate constant and the specific surface area is the volumetric rate constant. It has the dimension s and is comparable to the rate constant of a homogeneous first order reaction compare eq. (3.1). 

The course of a surface reaction can in principle be followed directly with the use of various surface spectroscopic techniques plus equipment allowing the rapid transfer of the surface from reaction to high-vacuum conditions see Campbell [232]. More often, however, the experimental observables are the changes with time of the concentrations of reactants and products in the gas phase. The rate law in terms of surface concentrations might be called the true rate law and the one analogous to that for a homogeneous system. What is observed, however, is an apparent rate law giving the dependence of the rate on the various gas pressures. The true and the apparent rate laws can be related if one assumes that adsorption equilibrium is rapid compared to the surface reaction. 

For many laboratoiy studies, a suitable reactor is a cell with independent agitation of each phase and an undisturbed interface of known area, like the item shown in Fig. 23-29d, Whether a rate process is controlled by a mass-transfer rate or a chemical reaction rate sometimes can be identified by simple parameters. When agitation is sufficient to produce a homogeneous dispersion and the rate varies with further increases of agitation, mass-transfer rates are likely to be significant. The effect of change in temperature is a major criterion-, a rise of 10°C (18°F) normally raises the rate of a chemical reaction by a factor of 2 to 3, but the mass-transfer rate by much less. There may be instances, however, where the combined effect on chemical equilibrium, diffusivity, viscosity, and surface tension also may give a comparable enhancement. 

In order to study the influence of surface disorder in the MM reaction, Frachenbourg et al. [91] have considered a substratum which has two types of randomly distributed sites with different adsorption rates. It is found that such a kind of disorder can sustain a reactive steady state, in contrast to the standard MM process on homogeneous surfaces. 

Fig. 7-11 Compilation of the most important photochemical processes in the atmosphere, including estimates of flux rates expressed in moles per year between the earth s surface and the atmosphere and within the atmosphere. (Modified with permission from P. J. Crutzen, Atmospheric interactions - homogeneous gas reactions of C, N, and S containing compounds. In B. Bolin and R. Cook (1983). "The Major Biogeochemical Cycles and Their Interactions," pp. 67-112, John Wiley, Chichester.)...

Electrochemical reaction rates are also influenced by substances which, although not involved in the reaction, are readily adsorbed on the electrode surface (reaction products, accidental contaminants, or special additives). Most often this influence comes about when the foreign species I by adsorbing on the electrode partly block the surface, depress the adsorption of reactant species j, and thus lower the reaction rate. On a homogeneous surface and with adsorption following the Langmuir isotherm, a factor 10, will appear in the kinetic equation which is the surface fraction free of foreign species 1 ... 

The second characteristic pertains to the fact that a very small amount of a catalyst may be able to maintain a high reaction rate over a long time. Although in practice some of the catalysts are extremely efficient for certain specific reactions, it is observed that in the majority of the cases of homogeneous catalysis, the enhancement in the reaction rate is proportional to the concentration of the catalyst used. In heterogeneous catalytic reactions involving reactant gases and solid surfaces, the total surface area of the solid may also affect the reaction rate. 

The electrochemical mechanism was rejected by Salvago and Cavallotti [26] on the basis that it does not explain several features of electroless deposition of ferrous metals it does not account for the isotopic composition of the H2 gas evolved it does not explain the effect of the various solution components on reaction rate and it does not account for the homogeneous decomposition of very active solutions or the fact that they can give deposition on insulating surfaces. These authors put forward a chemical mechanism, involving various hydrolyzed nickel species, which they claim explains the observed behavior of the system ... 

The rate law is of the form of Equation 17.5 in the previous section, and the equivalent law giving the net reaction rate is Equation 17.9. We can, therefore, account for the effect of catalysis on a redox reaction using the same formulation as the case of homogeneous reaction, if we include surface complexes among the promoting and inhibiting species. In Chapter 28, we consider in detail how this law can be integrated into a reaction path simulation. 

The high surface-to-volume ratio can also significantly improve both thermal and mass transfer conditions within micro-channels in two ways firstly, the convective heat and mass transfers, which take place at the multi-phase interface, are improved via a significant increase in heat and mass transfer area per unit volume. Secondly, heat and mass transfers within a small volume of fluid take a relatively short time to occur, enabling a thermally and diffusively homogeneous state to be reached quickly. The improvement in heat and mass transfer can certainly influence overall reaction rates and, in some cases, product selectivity. Perhaps one of the more profound effects of the efficient heat and mass transfer property of micro-reactors is the ability to carry potentially explosive or highly exothermic reactions in a safe way, due to the relatively small thermal mass and rapid dissipation of heat. 

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