Kinetic study of 5-nonanol intramolecular dehydration to nonenes over Amberlyst 45: effect of water

Abstract

Due to climate change, as well as the strong dependence on fossil fuels in our society, in recent years, pathways to obtain biofuels have been studied. One of the most developed pathways is to obtain biofuels from lignocellulose. A series of reactions are involved in this pathway, one of these is 5-nonanol dehydration to obtain nonenes. Nonenes are usually used to improve gasoline blending. The present work focuses on developing a kinetic model that explains satisfactorily 5-nonanol dehydration over certain experimental conditions but also, that had a thermodynamical basis to be extrapolated to other operational conditions. To fulfill the objective, a mechanism based on Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson formulism was proposed to find a general expression for reaction rate. The surface reaction was assumed to be a rate-controlling step. Then, 75 equations have been obtained by proposing different variations of the general expression of the reaction rate. Following, experimental data were fitted using those expressions to find parameters models. Then, parameter and values rate prediction by models has been analyzed under a selection criterion. An inhibition factor was applied to the set of best models previously founded. Finally, 10 more equations have been analyzed. Activation energy estimated from models was compared to activation energy found in the literature for similar systems