The analysis of data from recirculation reactors

A critical assessment is made of a commonly used procedure for estimating the kinetic parameters in a catalytic rate model using data obtained in a recirculation reactor. Serious deficiencies in this procedure are identified, and an alternative estimation scheme is proposed. The component mass balance equations in a recirculation reactor involve no differentiation or integration, and therefore the estimation of kinetic parameters appears to be simpler than the corresponding task with integral reactor data. However, a detailed examination shows that this is not the case, and that the effort involved in correctly estimating the parameters and their covariance matrix may not be significantly different for the two reactor types. Data obtained by Boag et al (10) from the vanadia‐catalysed gas‐phase oxidation of o‐xyleue in a recirculation reactor are used to demonstrate the differences between the parameter estimation procedure in common use and the procedure recommended in this paper.