Experimental and Kinetic Model for Enhanced Liquid-Phase Hydrogenation of <i>o</i>-Cresol in a Distributor-Type Multichannel Ceramic Membrane Reactor
Hong Jiang, Hang Zhu, Zhenchen Tang, Jiuxuan Zhang, Zhengyan Qu, Weihong Xing, Rizhi Chen
Abstract
The green production process of o -methylcyclohexanol is particularly important due to its widespread industrial applications. Addressing the issue of low mass transfer efficiency of hydrogen in traditional liquid-phase hydrogenation processes, multichannel ceramic membranes as hydrogen dispersion tools are introduced, successfully achieving uniform and efficient dispersion of hydrogen in the o -cresol cyclohexane solution, thereby promoting the efficient hydrogenation of o -cresol to o -methylcyclohexanol within a fixed-bed reactor. The results show that compared to conventional single-tube feeding methods, the introduction of ceramic membranes significantly enhances the o -cresol conversion and o -methylcyclohexanol selectivity. By optimizing the pore size (200 nm), channel number (19 channels) of the ceramic membranes, and operating conditions, o -cresol conversion and the o -methylcyclohexanol selectivity of no less than 99.5% are achieved under optimal operating conditions. Furthermore, a macro-kinetic model for the membrane-dispersion-enhanced liquid-phase hydrogenation of o -cresol is established, which incorporates an empirical equation for hydrogen solubility. Validation results show that the model-calculated reaction rates of o -cresol are highly consistent with experimental data, with errors controlled within 5%, providing theoretical support for the precise regulation of experimental operating conditions. The work offers a new strategy for the green production of o -methylcyclohexanol.