Hydrogenation of cyclohexene in bubble-column slurry reactor

Abstract

The applications of slurry reactors in which catalyst particles are suspended are gradually increasing in industry. Data are presented on the hydregenation of cyclohexene by using 5\% platinum supported on alumina catalyst in bubble column slurry reactor. Experiments were carried out at atmospheric pressure and at temperatures ranging from 30 to 60$^\circ$C with the catalyst particle size ranging from 120 to 325 mesh. The reaction rate was zero order with respect to cyclohexene concentration for all runs. The reaction rate increased with the increase of hydrogen flow rate up to 3.2 cm/sec., and fell down suddenly above the rates of 4.6 cm/sec. The effect of catalyst loading was also investigated. The observed rate linearly increased with addition of catalyst up to 2.0 gm., but above this point the observed rate approached a limiting value. The reaction rates were nearly independent of catalyst particle sizes mentioned above. The activation energy of this system was found to be 2.06 Kcal/gmole. With the methods used by Davis et al., it was found that the tatecontrolling step was the hydrogen thansfer from the bulk liquid to the catalyst particle.