Based on the dehydrogenation mechanism of heavy paraffins under industrial conditions, the intrinsic reaction kinetic model and catalyst deactivation model were established considering the influence of side reactions with different carbon‐number heavy paraffins. Based on the experimental data of dehydrogenation reactions with different carbon‐number paraffins in an axial continuous‐flow isothermal fixed‐bed microreactor, Powell optimization method was used to estimate the model parameters. The results show that there is a liner relationship between the activation energies and pre‐exponential factors of homologous reactions and carbon number of paraffins. A correlation model about the deactivation rate constants under different conditions was established. The validation of kinetic model showed that the model could be used to predict detailed product distribution with different feedstocks under different reaction conditions. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2017