An efficient technology for dye intermediate production: Process intensification of catalytic hydrogenation of aromatic nitrocompounds in a rotating packed bed reactor

Abstract The rotating packed bed (RPB) is suitable for catalytic hydrogenation of aromatic nitrocompounds whose reaction rate is limited by the mass transfer rate. However, the matching mechanism between the mass transfer rate and intrinsic reaction rate in the RPB reactor is still unclear. In this work, the matching relationship in the RPB reactor is studied by combining the characteristics of mass transfer and reaction in detail. Effects of various operating conditions on the gas–liquid mass transfer coefficient up to 0.31/s, under working conditions were studied and the mass transfer correlation was proposed. The hydrogenation of p‐nitroanisole was used as a probe reaction to analyze the matching mechanism. Various aromatic nitrocompounds in the RPB and stirred tank reactors were investigated. The reaction efficiency of the former is 5–20 times that of the latter, which further explained the universality of the matching mechanism in the RPB reactor.