Nonlinear estimation analysis of the kinetics of catalytic ethanol dehydrogenation

Abstract

In previous work, F ranckaerts and F roment analyzed the kinetics of the catalytic dehydrogenation of ethanol in an integral flow reactor. This analysis involved the initial rate method combined with parameter estimation by linear regression. In the present study, nonlinear estimation has been applied directly to the integral conversion data. For this purpose an experimental computer program has been used which features a kinetics input language, a numerical integration solver and a nonlinear estimation algorithm. The results of this study are in substantial agreement with those of F ranckaerts and F roment. An adequate representation of the data is given by a Langmuir-Hinshelwood form in which surface-reaction on dual sites without dissociation is controlling. Moreover, discrimination among alternative models is shown to be possible due in large part to the experimental design in which measurements were made at different total pressures as well as at various initial feed concentrations and space velocities.