Modeling of acetophenone hydrogenation over a Rh/C catalyst in a slurry airlift reactor

The hydrogenation of acetophenone in a slurry airlift reactor was conducted over a wide range of operating conditions. An important deactivation of the catalyst was experimentally observed and an empirical deactivation law was optimized. The deactivation rate constant increases with the inlet concentration and gas flow rate and decreases with the catalyst loading. The product selectivity measured in the slurry airlift reactor did not fit well with the computed one. The computation was performed using the results of the kinetic and hydrodynamic studies. A sensitivity analysis pointed out that the mass transfer is not limited. To perform a good fit with the experiments it was necessary to change some rate constants. This readjustment was justified by the difference in catalyst pretreatment between the continuous and the semi-batch reactor where significant catalyst pretreatment effects were shown. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.