Clean Oxidation of Alcohols in a Trickle-Bed Reactor with Liquid Flow Modulation

ALEJANDRA MUZEN; M. SOL FRAGUÍO; MIRYAN C. CASSANELLO; M. ALEJANDRA AYUDE; PATRICIA M. HAURE; OSVALDO M. MARTINEZ

INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMICAL RESEARCH

American Chemical Society

Año: 2005 vol. 44 p. 5275 - 5284

0888-5885

This work reports an experimental investigation of the catalytic oxidation of alcohols, usingmolecular oxygen as the oxidant and Pt/ç-Al2O3 (1%w/w) as catalyst, in a trickle-bed reactorwith ON-OFF liquid flow modulation under mild operating conditions. An aliphatic alcohol(ethanol) and an aromatic one (benzyl alcohol) are used as model reactants. The influence onreactor performance of different variables and modulation parameters (split and cycle period)are examined. Positive and detrimental effects of the liquid flow modulation are found and dependon the reactant used. Long cycle periods generally have a negative influence on the enhancementin conversion attained by using liquid flow modulation. For certain conditions, the enhancementversus cycle period curve shows a maximum, pointing to the importance of a systematic strategyto establish the experimental conditions to be employed if liquid flow modulation will be used.Found experimental trends are interpreted through a recently proposed model at the particlescale.