Kinetic study and reactor modelling on solid–liquid synthesis of cobalt acetate: From batch to continuous fixed‐bed reactor

Abstract To overcome the inherent limitations of the traditional batch process for solid–liquid cobalt acetate production, this study accomplishes the transition to a continuous process through integrated kinetic studies and reactor modelling of both batch and fixed‐bed reactor (FBR) systems. The kinetic study demonstrated that the global rate was controlled by internal diffusion in the batch reactor but was co‐controlled by external diffusion and chemical reactions in the continuous FBR, with apparent activation energies of 24.9 and 23.0 kJ/mol, respectively. Through reactor modelling, the effect of tube length, tube diameter, flow rate, and reaction temperature on the conversion of cobalt was investigated, and the process parameters were optimized. This study not only addresses the research gap in the reaction kinetics of cobalt acetate solid–liquid synthesis but also, by elucidating for the first time the distinct reaction control mechanisms and efficiency differences across different processes for this system and establishing a kinetics‐reactor coupled design framework, provides a novel methodology for the continuous development of similar solid–liquid systems.