Catalytic decomposition of formic acid in a fixed bed reactor – an experimental and modelling study

Formic acid is one of the key components in green chemistry being involved in energy storage, production of chemical intermediates and fuel components. Therefore the knowledge of its stability is of crucial importance and a systematic study of its decomposition is needed. The kinetics of formic acid decomposition to hydrogen and carbon dioxide was investigated in a laboratory-scale fixed bed reactor at 150–225 °C and atmospheric pressure. Palladium nanoparticles deposited on porous active carbon Sibunit were used as the heterogeneous catalyst. The catalyst was characterized by nitrogen physisorption and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The average palladium nanoparticle size was 5–6 nm. The impacts of mass transfer resistance and formic acid dimerization were negligible under the reaction conditions. Prolonged experiments revealed that the catalyst had a good stability. Hydrogen and carbon dioxide were the absolutely dominant reaction products, whereas the amounts of carbon monoxide and water were negligible. The experimental data were described with three kinetic models: first order kinetics, two-step adsorption-reaction model and multistep adsorption-decomposition model of formic acid. The multistep model gave the best description of the data.</p

Mesure de la force de traînée sur un agrégat

National audienceL'objectif est de mesurer la force de traînée sur un agrégat constitué d'un certain nombre de particules primaires. La plupart des mesures ont été réalisées jusqu'ici par sédimentation. Cette procédure pose un problème quant à la maîtrise de l'orientation de l'objet par rapport à un référentiel fixe. Nous proposons un nouveau montage, un mode opératoire et une analyse critique de la mesure. Ceux-ci ont été validés lors de l'étude d'une sphère

Hydrolysis of semi‐industrial aqueous extracted xylan from birch ( Betula pendula ) employing commercial catalysts: kinetics and modelling

International audienc

One flow through hydrolysis and hydrogenation of semi-industrial xylan from birch (betula pendula) in a continuous reactor—Kinetics and modelling

International audienc