Kinetics of Reductive Isopropylation of Benzene with Acetone over Nano-Copper Chromite-Loaded H-Mordenite

Alkylation of benzene by acetone was carried out over nano-copper chromite-loaded H-mordenite catalyst in a fixed bed flow reactor with 100% selectivity for the cumene. The catalytic activity of the modified catalyst was found to increase with an increase in copper chromite content in the mordenite. The activity of the catalyst was however found to be dependent on both preactivation temperature and time. Experiments were carried out to find out a mass transfer resistance-free zone by varying different parameters. Kinetic runs were taken in the mass transfer resistance-free zone at constant benzene to acetone molar ratio of 4:1 by varying the space-time under isothermal conditions in the reactor. Various kinetic models were proposed following the Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson approach. The model parameters were estimated by nonlinear regression analysis. From the estimated kinetic constants of the best model, the activation energy of the reaction was determined to be 120.5 kJ/mol.