Vapor-phase chemical equilibrium for the hydrogenation of benzene to cyclohexane from reaction-ensemble molecular simulation

The reaction-ensemble Monte-Carlo (REMC) molecular simulation method was used to study the vapor-phase chemical equilibrium for the reaction of hydrogenation of benzene to cyclohexane. A one-center modified Buckingham exponential-6 (1CMBE6) effective pair potential model (that had already been used to predict thermodynamic properties and liquid–liquid equilibria of helium+hydrogen mixtures) was used for hydrogen. Six-center modified Buckingham exponential-6 (6CMBE6) effective pair potential models (that had already been used to reproduce the saturated liquid and vapor densities, vapor pressures, second virial coefficients, and critical parameters of the six-membered ring molecules), were used for benzene and cyclohexane. No binary adjustable parameters were needed to compute the unlike-pair Buckingham exponential-6 interactions in the ternary system. Simulation results were obtained for the effect of some operating variables such as temperature (from 500 to 650 K), pressure (from 1 to 30 bar), and hydrogen to benzene feed mole ratio (from 1.5:1 to 6:1) on the reaction conversion, molar composition, and mass density of the ternary system at equilibrium. These results were found to be in excellent agreement with calculations using the predictive Soave–Redlich–Kwong (PSRK) group contribution equation of state.