Kinetics of catalytic combustion processes of air admixtures

A catalytic combustion of organic admixtures of air belongs to the basic technologies of gas purification. A macrokinetics of admixtures combustion over the porous catalysts was described. The theoretical approach is in agreement with standard description of macrokinetics of the catalytic processes. The relationship between the fundamental magnitudes: observed process rate r*, reaction rate r in the kinetic zone, and a coefficient of the surface utilization. in the form r*= r . eta. have been described. These magnitudes combines the Thiele module phi. A kinetics equation for the isothermal and non-isothermal conditions was provided. The influence of mass and heat transfer in the catalyst grain on the course of the process was described by means of the surface utilization coefficient.. An equation describing this coefficient for both isothermal and non-isothermal conditions was given. The second part of this work concerns the application of theory. When the composition of purified gas is continuously varied, a quantitative approach is rather impossible. The theory was used for the qualitative analysis of process on the basis of the experimental results. A fulfillment of the first-order kinetics means that the degree of admixtures conversion does not depend on their initial concentrations. A non-isothermicity of the catalyst grain is expressed in such a way that the process rate observed over the large porous grains of the catalyst can be higher than the reaction rate in the kinetic zone. A temperature deference between the catalyst grains and flowing gas causes that the reactor can be stably operated at varied concentrations of admixtures and temperature over a relatively wide range. It was also demonstrated that the flammable admixtures may advantageously influence the conversion of hardly combustible admixtures.