SELECTIVITY IN G-L REACTIONS CONTRIBUTION TO THE ANALYSIS OF THE SELECTIVITY IN GAS-LIQUID REACTION PART I: LITERATURE AND THEORY

A careful scrutinity of the literature shows on one hand the crucial industrial problems of selectivity in gas-liquid contactors and on the other hand, reveals the limited number of theoretical and experimental studies on the topic. A theoretical approach is proposed with the scheme A gas→ A liquid A + B→ C A+ C→ D using the film theory equations involving a mass balance between the film and the bulk. An original technique for the solution of the proposed differential system shows the influence of seven nondimensional numbers on the selectivity which is in fact calculated with the help of the concentration profiles in the dissolved gas in the reactant and in the product.