The kinetics of the hydrogenolysis of benzothiophene on a commercial CoMoly-Al,O, catalyst were studied in a tubular reactor. A sequential design of the experimental program was used for both the model discrimination and precise parameter estimation. Model selection was effectively achieved among 16 rival sets of rate equations of the Hougen-Watson type for both the hydrogenolysis of benzothiophene into ethylbenzene and the hydrogenation of benzothiophene into dihydrobenzothiophene with subsequent hydrogenolysis into ethylbenzene. The procedure was carried out at 513, 533, 553, and 573 K. The concerted surface reaction between benzothiophene or dihydrobenzothiiphene and two competitively adsorbed hydrogen atoms was found to be the ratedetermining step, a conclusion close to that arrived at in the study of thiophene hydrogenolysis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.