Source: Kerry M. Dooley and Michael G. Benton, Department of Chemical Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

Both batch and continuous flow reactors are used in catalytic reactions. Packed beds, which use solid catalysts and a continuous flow, are the most common configuration. In the absence of an extensive recycle stream, such packed bed reactors are typically modeled as "plug flow". The other most common continuous reactor is a stirred tank, which is assumed to be perfectly mixed.¹ One reason for the prevalence of packed bed reactors is that, unlike most stirred tank designs, a large wall area to reactor volume ratio promotes more rapid heat transfer. For almost all reactors, heat must either be added or withdrawn to control the temperature for the desired reaction to take place.

The kinetics of catalytic reactions are often more complex than the simple 1^st order, 2^nd order, etc. kinetics found in textbooks. The reaction rates can also be affected by rates of mass transfer - reaction cannot take place faster than the rate at which reactants are supplied to the surface or the rate at which products are removed - and heat transfer. For these reasons, experimentation is almost always necessary to determine the reaction kinetics prior to designing large-scale equipment. In this experiment, we explore how to conduct such experiments and how to interpret them by finding a reaction rate expression and an apparent rate constant.

This experiment explores the use of a packed bed reactor to determine the kinetics of sucrose inversion. This reaction is typical of those characterized by a solid catalyst with liquid phase reactants and products.

sucrose → glucose (dextrose) + fructose(1)

A packed bed reactor will be operated at different flow rates to control the space time, which is related to residence time and is analogous to elapsed time in a batch reactor. The catalyst, a solid acid, will first be prepped by exchanging protons for any other cations present. Then, the reactor will be heated to the desired temperature (isothermal operation) with the flow of reactants. When the temperature has equilibrated, product sampling will begin. The samples will be analyzed by a polarimeter, which measures optical rotation. The mixture's optical rotation can be related to the conversion of sucrose, which can then be used in standard kinetics analyses to determine the order of the reaction, with respect to the reactant sucrose, and the apparent rate constant. The effects of fluid mechanics - no axial mixing (plug flow) vs. some axial mixing (stirred tanks in series) - on the kinetics will be analyzed as well.