Merging information from batch and continuous flow experiments for the identification of kinetic models of benzyl alcohol oxidation over Au-Pd catalyst

Despite the great industrial importance of benzaldehyde as a reaction intermediate, only a few attempts have been made in the literature to develop kinetic models able of characterising the catalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde quantitatively both in batch and flow systems. The purpose of this paper is to merge the information obtained from a laboratory scale batch glass stirred reactor (GSR) with the information obtained from a continuous-flow micro-packed bed reactor (MPBR) for an accurate and quantitative description of the products distribution in these reaction systems. A two-stage procedure is applied for this purpose where experimental design techniques are used for evaluating the most promising regions of the experimental space for the identification of kinetic models.