Catalysis-in-a-Box: A Micro-flow Catalytic Reactor Integrated within a Gas Chromatograph for Automated Kinetic Measurements

06 December 2019, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

The design and implementation of an autonomous micro-flow-reactor condensing conventional laboratory-scale analogues within a single gas chromatograph (GC) is reported, enabling the control of relevant parameters including reactor temperature and reactant partial pressures directly from the GC. Inquiries into the hydrodynamic behavior, temperature control, and heat/mass transfer were sought to evaluate the efficacy of the micro-flow-reactor for kinetic measurements. A combination of four Brønsted acid catalyzed probe reactions, namely the dehydration of ethanol, 2-propanol, 1-butanol, and the dehydra-decyclization of 2-methyltetrahydrofuran on a solid acid HZSM-5 (Si/Al 140), were carried out in the temperature range 403-543 K for the measurement of apparent reaction kinetics. Product selectivities, proton-normalized reaction rates, and apparent activation barriers were found to be in agreement with measurements performed in conventional packed bed flow reactors. The developed micro-flow-reactor is therefore intended to be used for kinetic investigations in vapor-phase catalytic chemistries, with the key benefits including automation and limited experimental equipment instrumentation.

Keywords

microreactor experiments
Big Data approaches
Big Data Research
automation system
Kinetics analysis

Supplementary materials

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SupportingInformation SI 11 27 19
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2MTHF TRANSPORT CALCS
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BUTANOL TRANSPORT CALCS
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ETHANOL TRANSPORT CALCS
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PROPANOL TRANSPORT CALCS
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