The Kinetics of Some Industrial Heterogeneous Catalytic Reactions

Abstract

This chapter presents an account of the main results of the studies of the kinetics of some industrial heterogeneous catalytic reactions. The phenomenon of catalysis is a subject of chemical kinetics. The accumulation of data on the kinetics of concrete catalytic reactions favors the progress of the theory of catalysis. The chapter discusses mass transfer in heterogeneous catalysis. Purely physical phenomena––namely, the diffusion of reactants to the catalyst surface (in the majority of cases, to the inner surface of pores), the diffusion of products from this surface, and the transfer of heat evolved or absorbed in the course of the reaction––are indispensable components of the heterogeneous catalystic process. A purely experimental criterion of the kinetic region––namely, independence of the experimentally observed reaction rate on the size of catalyst grains––is used.