3.Experiment
The propene hydrogenation reaction was carried out in tubular reactor
(Microactivity-Efficient Unit, manufacturer: Process Integral
Development Eng&tech, Madrid, Spain) on heterogeneous nickel catalyst
(type of KUB-3, manufacturer: New Chemical Syntheses Institute, Catalyst
Department, Puławy, Poland). Nickel catalyst was activated in accordance
with the manufacturer’s instructions. Post reaction mixtures were
analysed with gas chromatograph (CALIDUS™ 101 Gas Chromatograph,
manufacturer: Falcon Analytical, Lewisburg, WV, USA). The same
methodology was applied as in the former investigations[14] Operating conditions applied are as follows:
p=0.12 MPa, hydrogen flow rate =30 cm3min-1 , temperature of the catalyst bed 120-150°C for
slab and 60-80°C for sphere; partial pressure propylene 14400-24000 Pa.
In experiments with slab catalyst was applied a glass reactor of inner
diameter 10 mm. In experiments with spherical catalyst it was replaced
by a steel reactor of inner diameter 9.3mm. It resulted in different
conditions of the heat exchange.
The earlier experiment[14] resulted in the
following kinetic equation:
\begin{equation}
r_{p}=44400p_{p}^{0.5}\exp\left(-\frac{26500}{\text{RT}}\right)\left[\frac{\text{mol}}{m^{3}s}\right]\nonumber \\
\end{equation}where rp is rate of reaction with respect to propylene,
pp is partial pressure of propylene, R is gas constant,
and, T is temperature.
The selected results are presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Results of experiment.