Kinetics of Tricyclopentadiene Hydrogenation over Pd-B/γ-Al2O3 Amorphous Catalyst

The kinetics of tricyclopentadiene hydrogenation to tetrahydrotricyclopentadiene over Pd-B/γ-Al 2 O 3 amorphous catalyst has been studied in a stirred semibatch reactor over a range of temperatures (353−413 K), hydrogen pressures (1.0−3.5 MPa), initial feed concentrations (0.2−0.4 mol/L), and catalyst concentrations (0.60−5.33 g/L). The reaction is found to be a consecutive reaction with 14,15-dihydrotricyclopentadiene as the intermediate product. Analysis verifies that the kinetic experiments are conducted in the absence of mass transfer resistance. An Eley−Rideal kinetic model is formulated with the assumption that single-site adsorbed organic species are saturated by hydrogen dissolved in the liquid phase and the surface reaction is rate-determining. This model can accurately fit the experimental data in the ranges studied and correctly explain the observed tendencies. The kinetic parameters are obtained by minimizing the error between the model predications and the experimental results. The activation energies for the first and second step reactions are 11.11 kJ/mol and 34.71 kJ/mol, respectively. The kinetic model provides a useful tool for the reactor design and performance estimation of amorphous Pd catalysts.