Investigation of the effect of hydrogen pressure on the rate of heterogeneous catalytic isomerization of cyclohexane

Abstract

1. An investigation was made of the effect of temperature and catalyst grain size on the rate of cyclohexane isomerization to methylcyclopentane in the presence of an industrial WS2 catalyst under a pressure of hydrogen in a flow system. 2. The reaction proceeded in the kinetic region over the temperature range 320–380°, but above 380° it passed into the diffusion (or transition) region. The apparent activation energy in the kinetic region was ∼30 kcal/mole. 3. The retardation of cyclohexane isomerization with an increase in partial hydrogen pressure is not caused by diffusion factors and is characteristic of the kinetic region of the reaction.