In
the cyclohexanone purification process, some impurities, such
as pentanal, hexanal, and 2-cyclohexen-1-one, must be removed in order
to ensure good quality of nylon fibers in the caprolactam polymerization
step. To do this, an industrial common practice is to add a homogeneous
basic catalyst (such as sodium hydroxide, NaOH) to promote the condensation
of these impurities with cyclohexanone because the condensation products
are easily separated by distillation. In this study, a kinetic model
for the catalytic condensation of each impurity was developed, including
variables such as temperature, impurity concentration, and catalyst
concentration. In order to fulfill this purpose, runs were carried
out in a batch reactor containing 70 g of cyclohexanone and different
contents of impurities. NaOH was used as the catalyst (C
NaOH values ranging from 2.5 to 30.0 mmol/kg). Runs were
carried out by a nonisothermal procedure; the reaction temperature
was changed from 298 to 423 K, and several temperature ramps were
applied. All of the experiments were conducted at a pressure of 10
bar to ensure that all of the volatile compounds remained in the liquid
phase. The products of the condensation reaction of each impurity
with cyclohexanone were identified and quantified by gas chromatography/mass
spectrometry. The reaction products found were as follows: 2-(1-pentenyl)cyclohexanone
(A1) and 2-pentylidenecyclohexanone (A2), in
which both isomers were lumped together and quantified as A; 2-(1-hexen-1-yl)cyclohexanone
(B1) and 2-hexylidenecyclohexanone (B2), in
which these isomers were lumped together and quantified as B; [1,1′-bicyclohexyl]-2,2′-dione
(C1) and [1,1′-bicyclohexyl]-2,3′-dione (C2), in which both were lumped together as C. The kinetic parameters
were estimated by data fitting. The estimated activation energies
of impurity elimination were 3.47 kJ/mol for pentanal, 3.99 kJ/mol
for hexanal, and 24.23 kJ/mol for 2-cyclohexen-1-one. This kinetic
model reproduced the experimental results quite well. Moreover, experimental
data from isothermal experiments were also reasonably well predicted
with the model.