Investigation of the kinetics of ethylbenzene pyrolysis using a temperature-scanning reactor

A new technique of gathering kinetic data has been examined. This involved gathering raw data at the end of a plug-flow reactor undergoing temperature ramping. The data acquired in this way was made to yield many isothermal sets of rate data suitable for fitting to candidate rate expressions. This technique was applied to the thermal decomposition of ethylbenzene. The resulting fit to a rate expression proposed previously in the literature was good. The parameters obtained compare well with literature values, and our fitted rate expressions yield calculated conversions in agreement with those reported in the literature. We believe that temperature-scanning methods used in experimental reactors yield correct rate data and are considerably faster for rate data acquisition than conventional isothermal reactors.