Intrinsic Kinetic Modeling of Thermal Dimerization of C-5 Fraction

This work aims to investigate the intrinsic kinetics of thermal dimerization of C-5 fraction in the reactive distillation process. Experiments are conducted in an 1000-mL stainless steel autoclave under some selected design conditions. By means of the weighted least squares method, the intrinsic kinetics of thermal dimerization of C-5 fraction is established, and the corresponding pre-exponential factor as well as the activation energy are determined. For example, the pre-exponential factor A is equal to 4.39x10(5) and the activation energy E-a is equal to 6.58x10(4) J/mol for the cyclopentadiene dimerization reaction. The comparison between the experimental and calculated results shows that the kinetics model derived in this work is accurate and reliable, which can be used in the design of reactive distillation columns.