Kinetics of wood phenolysis in the presence of HCl as catalyst

Monarch birch wood (Betula maximowiczina Regel) wastes were phenolated in the presence of HCl as a catalyst at 60-150degreesC for various reaction times. Typical kinetic parameters along with percent reacted wood and phenol were determined by using kinetic models. In addition, according to the transition-state theory the activation parameters of wood phenolysis was determined. The percent reacted wood wastes depicted that about 90% of the wood could be liquefied into phenol at a temperature of 150degreesC. However, about 30% of phenol was found to react with wood components. The kinetic studies showed that wood phenolysis with HCl catalyst at 60-150degreesC obviously followed a bimolecular type of second-order reaction. Activation energy was found to be 13.438 kJ mol(-1) from an Arrhenius plot. Furthermore, the findings related with activation enthalpy showed that the wood phenolysis had dominantly endothermic reaction nature. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.