A kinetic study of Pd–Au catalyzed synthesis of vinyl acetate from oxidation of ethylene and acetic acid in heterogeneous gas reaction

While qualitative interpretation of the experimental results is often limited to the identification of global mechanistic phenomena, kinetic modeling is a more powerful tool for the identification of the chemical reaction network that can describe the experimental results. In this paper, kinetic study of vinyl acetate (VA) synthesis was performed in a fixed bed reactor with oxidation of ethylene and acetic acid in gaseous phase over Pd/Au/SiO2 catalyst under the industrial relevant reaction condition as follows: temperature of 120–165 °C, at constant pressure of 8 bar and the ratio of catalyst mass to the feed (W/F) was maintained at 70 g/mol min. Variation in partial pressure and concentration of reactants have led us to determine the rate limiting step and therefore proposing a new rate low based on Langmuir-Hinshelwood–Hougen–Watson (LHHW) approached consistent with experimental observation while adapted through mathematical formulation with high reliance. So, the kinetic parameters were determined by the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. Effect of temperature has also been surveyed showing a decreased in selectivity due to the difference in reaction constants of main and side reaction rate and an increase rate due to the increase in apparent activation energy.