Kinetics of phenylacetylene hydrogenation over Pt/γ-Al2O3 catalyst

The kinetics of phenylacetylene hydrogenation over Pt/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst was investigated using stirred semibatch reactors over a range of temperatures, pressures, and initial phenylacetylene concentrations. Analysis verified that the results were obtained in the absence of transport limitations. Equations for the rates of change for phenylacetylene, styrene, and ethylbenzene were derived from a system of elementary reactions and tested against experimental data. The model was found to accurately predict rate dependencies on catalyst weight, initial concentration, and pressure. The kinetic parameters were determined by minimizing the error between the model predictions and the experimental results, and the obtained activation energy values compared favorably with those reported in the literature.