Kinetics of liquid-phase hydrogenation of n-valeraldehyde to n -amyl alcohol over a Ru/Al2O3Ru/Al2O3 catalyst

The kinetics of liquid-phase hydrogenation of n-valeraldehyde to n-amyl alcohol over a 5% Ru/Al2O3 catalyst was studied in the chemical control regime in the range of temperatures 323–348 K and pressures 0.69–2.76 MPa, using 2-propanol as the solvent. The selectivity to n-amyl alcohol was 100%. The addition of water led to a marked increase in the rate of reaction. The catalyst could be reused thrice without any loss in activity. The initial rates increased linearly with the catalyst loading at 348 K in the range of catalyst concentrations 0.26–1.29kgm-3. A simple power law model was used for analysis of the reaction kinetic data. A single-site Langmuir–Hinshelwood-type model suggesting dissociative adsorption of hydrogen and surface reaction as the rate-controlling step provided the best fit of the experimental data.