Mass transfer resistance of CuCl 2 hydrolysis in a fixed bed reactor

Abstract The hydrolysis reaction of the copper‐chlorine (Cu‐Cl) cycle is examined in this paper to better understand the corresponding reaction kinetics and mass transfer resistance. The experiment was operated at a temperature of 390°C at atmospheric pressure. The reaction is heterogeneous in which solid reactant CuCl 2 and gaseous reactant H 2 O produce Cu 2 OCl 2 (s) and HCl(g). Heterogeneous behaviour of the reaction causes a resistance to mass transfer of gaseous reactant H 2 O. The resistance in internal diffusion and a surface reaction with mass transfer was analyzed with respect to the initial solid reactant particle size using a shrinking core model (SCM). The experimentally determined reaction and conversion rates of hydrolysis reaction with respect to time are presented.