Kinetic modeling of continuous CO 2 cycloaddition reactions over heterogeneous catalysts in a fixed bed reactor

The synthesis of high-value cyclic carbonates via ionic liquid-catalyzed CO2 cycloaddition aligns with the principles of atom economy and holds significant importance in green chemistry. In this study. the heterogeneous catalytic synthesis of propylene carbonate (PC) via CO2 cycloaddition to propylene oxide (PO) was investigated using graphene oxide-supported N-methylimidazolium bromide (GO-SmIm-Br) in a fixed bed reactor (FBR). The reaction order was determined using the Langmuir–Hinshelwood (LH) kinetic model, while the reaction activation energy (28.29 kJ mol−1) was derived from the Arrhenius equation. An axial diffusion model of the reactor was developed, incorporating the Peclet number to analyze the correlation between convective mass transfer and backmixing intensity. Furthermore, a dual-zone model (dead zone and short-circuit zone) was constructed to examine its influence on the numerical characteristics of residence time distribution (RTD). This work establishes a multi-aspect integration framework, including encompassing kinetic parameters, concentration profiles, dispersion characteristics, and flow distribution, which can provide technical guidance for the industrial scale-up of FBR systems and be extended to other CO2 utilization processes.