Modeling of sulphonation of tridecylbenzene in a falling film reactor

The problem of gas absorption into a falling film reactor was studied in the case of an instantaneous reaction. A diffusion–convection–reaction model was developed taking momentum, mass and heat transfer effects into account. The performance of the model was examined for sulphonation of tridecylbenzene. The resultant equations were solved using a finite difference backward implicit scheme. The results indicated an increase in the axial temperature of the liquid film for a short distance from the reactor top and the predicted conversion was in close agreement with the experimental results.