Dynamic modelling of homogeneously catalysed glycerol hydrochlorination in bubble column reactor

The homogeneously catalysed glycerol hydrochlorination was thoroughly investigated in a continuous isothermal co-current bubble column reactor over a wide range of reaction parameters, such as temperature (70–120 °C), catalyst concentration (3–12%), liquid flow rate (6–12 mL/min) and gas flow rate (0.4–1.0 L/min). The flow patterns inside the reactor were studied by means of step response residence time distribution experiments and by high-speed camera images. The fluid dynamics of the system presented an unusual behaviour due to the extremely high solubility of HCl in the reaction mixture. Interestingly, the fluid dynamics imposed severe limitations to the reaction conversion. The axial dispersion model was applied for describing the dynamic changes in concentrations of compounds. Kinetic and solubility data were collected from previous work on glycerol hydrochlorination in semi-batch reactor conducted by our research group. The bubble column model was able to successfully describe the dynamic behaviour of 29 experiments, as well as estimate hydrodynamics and mass transfer parameters.