Kinetic study of Bechamp process for Nitrobenzene reduction to aniline

Abstract

Bechamp process is a well-known process for the reduction of aromatic nitro compounds using zero valent iron powder and acid. Reduction of p-nitro toluene (PNT) to p-toluidine (PT) is a process of three steps in series, namely adsorption of PNT on the iron surface, surface reaction of PNT to PT and desorption of the product from the iron surface. Reduction of PNT to PT by Bechamp process has carried out in a 500 ml batch reactor in this work. Gas Chromatograph (GC) is used for the sample analysis. A GC method has been developed with toluene as the solvent for determining the compositions of various reaction components. In this work, we have carried out experiments to find out the limiting step for PNT reduction. We have considered selectivity of PT as performance criteria in this study at various operating conditions. We also present the effect of rpm on rate constant and present the mathematical model for the same.