St.

JOSEPH’S COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, CHENNAI 600 119

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

CH6701 – CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING – II

ASSIGNMENT I
PART A

1. What is Catalyst promoter? (NOV/DEC 2014)

Catalyst promoters are substances which do not act as catalyst but enhance the
efficiency or activity or selectivity or stability of catalyst and prolong catalyst life.
For example, the catalytic activity of V2O5 in oxidation of SO2 is enhanced
appreciably when sulphates of alkali metals are added in small amounts.

2. What is catalyst inhibition? (NOV/DEC 2014)

Catalyst inhibitors are substances which decrease the rate of reaction, or activity or
selectivity or stability of the catalyst. For example in the oxidation of ethylene,
ethylene oxide is the desirable product. At the same conditions CO2 and H2O are also
formed by complete oxidation, but this reaction is undesirable and needs to be
suppressed. In this process silver supported alumina is a good catalyst but if
halogen compound is added, CO2 and H2O formation is reduced.
3. Define Effectiveness Factor of a catalyst. (May 2015).

Effectiveness Factor of a catalyst can be defined as:

Effectiveness factor = actual mean reaction rate within pore /rate if not slowed by
pore diffusion.

4. What are types of catalyst deactivation? (May 2012).

Activity of catalysts normally decreases with time. The life of any catalyst generally
depends on type of reactions as well as reaction conditions. For example, catalysts
for catalytic cracking lose much of their activity within seconds due to carbon
deposition on the surface while promoted iron catalysts used in ammonia synthesis
have a lifetime of years.

5. What are promoters and inhibitators? (Dec. 2014).

Promoters is an additive which has no catalytic properties of its own but enhances
the activity of a catalyst. Promoter results in increase of available surface area
stabilization against crystal growth and sintering and improvement of mechanical
strength.

6. Name the methods of preparing solid catalyst.

1. Bulk preparation method.

2. Impregnation method
3. Physical mixing

7. Name the three categories of Industrial catalysts.

1. Bulk catalysts.
 2. Supported catalyst.
3. Mixed Agglomerates.

8. How will represent pore-volume distribution?

Pore size distribution can be represented both in differential and cumulative ways.

PART B

1. (i) Explain the nature of catalytic surface with suitable

examples. (ii)Discuss in detail about different types of
adsorption.
Key: (i) A catalyst is effective in increasing the rate of reaction because it makes
possible an alternative mechanism, each step of which has a lower free energy of
activation than that for an un-catalyzed process.
The combination of reactant and the catalyst is a widely accepted basis for
explaining the catalysis.
A relatively small amount of catalyst can cause conversion of a large amount
of reactant.
The position of equilibrium in a reversible reaction is not changed by the
presence of the catalyst.
Note: Choose any simple example and match with above points.
(ii)Types of Adsorption:

2. Describe in detail the Nitrogen adsorption method for the

determination of Surface area of a catalyst.
Key: By the application of Langmuir adsorption isotherm for mono-molecular layer
of adsorption, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) extended the Langmuir isotherm to
apply it for the multilayer adsorption. As a result, the BET equation is
{P/[v (po – p)]} = [1 / (vm c)] + [(c – 1)/(c vm)] (p/po)
Where p - partial pressure of adsorbed gaseous
molecule p0 - saturation or vapor pressure
(i) - volume of gas adsorbed
vm - volume adsorbed when all the active sites are covered
c - Constant for the particular temperature and gas-solid system
The above equation will give a linear plot with vm = 1/[Slope + Y-int)
 For the N2 adsorption at -195.5oC, the surface area

Sg = 4.3653 vm (m2/g-cat)

3. Discuss the determination of Pore volume and Pore-volume

distribution. [Dec
2102]
Key: The pore volume of a catalyst particle can be estimated by boiling a weighed
sample immersed in a liquid such as water. After the air in the pores has been
displaced, the sample is superficially dried and weighed. The increase in weight
divided by the density of the liquid gives the pore volume.

Since the effectiveness of the internal surface for catalytic reactions depends not
only on the volume of void spaces but also on the radius of the void regions, it is
necessary to know the distribution of void volume in a catalyst according to size of
the pore.

There are two established methods for measuring the distribution of pore volumes;
Mercury-penetration method
Nitrogen-desorption method

4. Explain in detail about the Preparation of Catalyst.

Key: There are four methods of catalyst preparation;

a. Precipitation
b. Gel formation
c. Simple mixing of components
d. Impregnation