Kinetic study of the combustion of ethanol and ethyl acetate mixtures over a MnCu catalyst

Abstract

A kinetic study of ethanol and ethyl acetate combustion on an efficient catalyst identified as Mn9Cu1 is reported in this contribution. Ethanol and ethyl acetate are typical VOCs which can be found in effluents of printing industries. Ethanol oxidation produces an intermediate product, acetaldehyde. On the other hand, ethyl acetate oxidation produces directly CO2 and H2O. Acetaldehyde reacts more slowly than ethanol, while ethyl acetate is slightly more difficult to oxidize than acetaldehyde. Strong inhibition effects among the species involved (ethanol, ethyl acetate and acetaldehyde) should be explicitly considered to propose reaction rate expressions. Thus, experimental data were satisfactorily fitted employing LHHW type expressions. The estimated activation energy of ethyl acetate and ethanol oxidation lies in the range of values reported in the literature for similar catalysts.