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Kinetic parameters of a two‐phase model for in situ epoxidation of soybean oil
Author(s) -
Rangarajan Bharath,
Havey Adam,
Grulke Eric A.,
Culnan P. Dean
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/bf02540983
Subject(s) - mass transfer , kinetics , phase (matter) , kinetic energy , thermodynamics , inert , chemistry , heat transfer , solvent , reaction rate , continuous stirred tank reactor , reaction rate constant , soybean oil , process (computing) , range (aeronautics) , materials science , organic chemistry , chromatography , catalysis , physics , food science , quantum mechanics , computer science , composite material , operating system
The process of in situ epoxidation consists of a two‐phase system that involves reactions in both phases, mass transfer between phases, and thermodynamic driving forces for the mass transfer. In this paper, we present a model that treats the process as a two‐phase system and uses local phase concentrations to calculate reaction and mass transfer rates. The process of in situ epoxidation has been broken down into a set of systematic steps, and rate constants for each step have been determined. A conventional stirred tank reactor, equipped with cooling coils, eliminated the heat and mass transfer limitations so that the true kinetics of in situ epoxidation were observed. It is shown that significantly larger rates (larger by factors of 2–10) are obtained when heat and mass transfer limitations are removed. The two‐phase model adequately predicts the epoxidation kinetics over a wide range of temperatures (50–90°C). In addition, the model also correctly predicts the effect of adding an inert solvent.