Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 52(5): 1877-1885 (link)
The kinetics of the IL-catalyzed reaction of isobutane with 2-butene and the size distribution of the dispersed IL droplets were investigated in a stirred tank reactor. The results were used to calculate the intrinsic reaction rate constant with a model accounting for the interplay of external and internal mass transport and chemical reaction. The intrinsic reaction rate was found to be very high, leading to a low effectiveness factor of the IL catalyst. The used fraction of the IL droplets with a diameter of about 400 μm was very small, and the actual reaction took place only in a thin spherical shell with a thickness of about 5 μm.