Kinetics of Diels-Alder reactions of cyclopentadiene with feed impurities

Abstract

In this thesis, I present a developed kinetic model of cyclopentadiene with feed impurities. The model is valid for multiple impurities: isoprene, trans-1,3-pentadiene, 1-pentene, and cyclopentene. The model was developed from experiments over a temperature range of 80 °C to 160 °C. Reaction rate constants across this range were calculated and related activation energies and pre-exponential factors were derived. Overall, the model affirms that CPD self-dimerization is the dominant reaction occurring in the C5 stream, followed by the co-dimerization between cyclopentadiene and isoprene. For impurities, co-dimerization with CPD occurs more readily than self-dimerization.