Characterizing the Kinetics of Heterogeneous Exothermic Reactions

The catalytic hydrogenation of aromatic nitro compounds is a complex exothermic process influenced by the competing effects of the mass transfer and the kinetics. In reaction calorimeters, several methods were applied to determine the parameters of kinetics and mass transfer under different process conditions. It was found that a bad quality of the aromatic nitro compound and disadvantageous process conditions can cause an accumulation of intermediates which probably deactivate the catalyst and lead to low reaction rates.