Investigation of external mass transfer in micropacked bed reactors

In this work, the hydrogenation of α-methylstyrene to cumene over Pd catalyst is adopted to determine the external mass transfer performance under the mass transfer limited regime in micro-packed bed reactors. The operating temperature, pressure, and solvent are first confirmed for this method. Then the effects of gas and liquid superficial velocities as well as particle size on the external overall volumetric mass transfer coefficient are investigated. The external overall volumetric mass transfer coefficient in micro-packed bed reactors can reach 0.15–2.76 s⁻¹, which is about one to two orders of magnitude larger than those of conventional large trickle bed reactors. Furthermore, a correlation of the external overall volumetric mass transfer coefficient is proposed and the external mass transfer process analysis is carried out.