Chemical Reactions and Kinetics of the Carbon Monoxide Coupling in the Presence of Hydrogen

The chemical reactions and kinetics of the catalytic coupling reaction of carbon monoxide to diethyl oxalate were studied in the presence of hydrogen over a supported palladium catalyst in the gaseous phase at the typical coupling reaction conditions. The experiments were performed in a continuous flow fixed-bed reactor. The results indicated that hydrogen only reacts with ethyl nitrite to form ethanol, and kinetic studies revealed that the rate-determining step is the surface reaction of adsorbed hydrogen and the ethoxy radical (EtO-). A kinetic model is proposed and a comparison of the observed and calculated conversions showed that the rate expressions are of rather high confidence.