Ethanol was oxidized in supercritical water in an isothermal

plug-flow reactor. The experimental variables included temperatures varying from 748.2 to 823.2K

pressures varying from 22 to 30MPa

reactor residence time varying from 0.6 to 63.7s

and oxygen/ethanol molar feed ratios varying from 4.56 to 9.09. The experimental results showed that monoxide was the major intermediate in the oxidation of ethanol in supercritical water. The global kinetics for ethanol disappearance was described by a rate law that was first order in ethanol and zero order in oxygen. The activation energy was 3.51 ×105 J.mol-1

and the Arrhenius pre-exponential factor was 7.74 ×1021 s-1. The deviation between calculated and experimental results was approximately within 10%.