Kinetic model, dehydrogenation ethylbenzene

Hossain, M. M., Atanda, L., Al-Yassir, N., Al-Khattaf, S. (2012). Kinetics modeling of ethylbenzene dehydrogenation to styrene over a mesoporous alumina supported iron catalyst. Chemical Engineering Journal, 207—208, 308—321. 

Figure 16.21 Experimental composition obtained in the dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene and the corresponding fitting curves based on the kinetic models.

Lee WJ, Froment GF. Ethylbenzene dehydrogenation into styrene Kinetic modeling and reactor simulation. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research 2008 47 9183-9194. 

Since no synthetic chemistiy infrastructure was available at the Department (or, indeed, the Institute) before 2008, polyciystalline samples of catalysts had to be obtained from external, often industrial, partners. In order to produce model systems in house, researchers in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry developed a suite of instruments allowing the synthesis of metal oxides by physical vapor deposition of elements and by annealing procedures at ambient pressure. They chose the dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene on iron oxides as the subject of their first major study. Figure 6.6 summarizes the main results. The technical catalyst (A) is a complex convolution of phases, with the active sites located at the solid-solid interface. It was possible to synthesize well-ordered thin films (D) of the relevant ternary potassium iron oxide and to determine their chemical structure and reactivity. In parallel. Department members developed a micro-reactor device (B) allowing them to measure kinetic data (C) on such thin films. In this way, they were able to obtain experimental data needed for kinetic modeling under well-defined reaction conditions, which they could use to prove that the model reaction occurs in the same way as the reaction in the real-life system. Thin oxide... 

Ethylbenzene dehydrogenation in a packed-bed shell-and-tube reactor using a porous membrane has been modeled by Mohan and Govind [1988b] and Wu and Liu [1992]. The kinetics for the reaction... 

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