Effective and Intrinsic Kinetics of Liquid-Phase Isobutane/2-Butene Alkylation Catalyzed by Chloroaluminate Ionic Liquids

CATEGORY: IONIC LIQUIDS
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2013, 52 (5), pp 1877–1885, DOI: 10.1021/ie3028087
Effective and Intrinsic Kinetics of Liquid-Phase Isobutane/2-Butene Alkylation Catalyzed by Chloroaluminate Ionic Liquids
L. Schilder †, S. Maaß ‡, and A. Jess *†
jess@uni-bayreuth.de
† Department of Chemical Engineering, University Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany
‡ SOPATec UG, Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Technical University Berlin, Fraunhoferstraße 33-36, 10587 Berlin, Germany
Abstract
Researchers used results of a study of the kinetics of the IL-catalyzed reaction of isobutane with 2-butene and the size distribution of the dispersed IL droplets in a stirred tank reactor to calculate the intrinsic reaction rate constant with a model accounting for the interplay of external and internal mass transport and chemical reaction.
They observed the intrinsic reaction rate to be very high, resulting in a low effectiveness factor of the IL catalyst. The used fraction of the IL droplets with a diameter of about 400 μm was very small, and the actual reaction took place only in a thin spherical shell with a thickness of about 5 μm.
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