Hlo I am trying to get kinetics of methanol to dimethyl ether kinetics on hzsm-5 si/al = 40 catalysts at 160 deg c I was unable to reach zeroth order kinetic regime. I doubt that the reaction will become mass transfer control before it reaches zero order kinetics. Please let me know what should be the partial pressure of methanol when the reaction reaches zero order . I am also using a fixed bed catalytic reactors where i change the flow rate of methanol to change the partial pressure and i am also injecting nitrogen along with the methanol where i am changing the methanol flow rate. Please let me know is this an ideal practice for getting kinetics. Please let me know
Thank you.
Vignesh
Hi Vignesh,
Actually I don’t think that pressure has a great influence on the reaction, since methanol dehydration occurs without a change in the number of moles. I would work on catalyst particles’ size, finding a compromise between excessive pressure drops and mass transfer limitations. Moreover, I would try to increase temperature: it is a bit low and, therefore, there could be kinetic limitations, rather than thermodynamic ones.
I hope I have been a help to you,
Antonio