Kinetics studies of <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">d</Emphasis>-glucose hydrogenation over activated charcoal supported platinum catalyst

The kinetics of the catalytic hydrogenation of d-glucose to produce d-sorbitol was studied in a three-phase laboratory scale reactor. The hydrogenation reactions were performed on activated charcoal supported platinum catalyst in the temperature range 25–65°C and in a constant pressure of 1 atm. The kinetic data were modeled by zero, first and second-order reaction equations. In the operating regimes studied, the results show that the hydrogenation reaction was of a first order with respect to d-glucose concentration. Also the activation energy of the reaction was determined, and found to be 12.33 kJ mole⁻¹. A set of experiment was carried out to test the deactivation of the catalyst, and the results show that the deactivation is slow with the ability of using the catalyst for several times with a small decrease in product yield.