In an automobile's catalytic converter, CO and hydrocarbons present in the exhaust gases are oxidized. Unfortunately the effectiveness of these units decreases with use. The phenomenon was studied by Summers and Hegedus in J. Catalysis, 51, 185 (1978) by means of an accelerated aging test on a palladium impregnated porous pellet packed bed converter. From the reported data on hydrocarbon conversion shown below, develop an expression to represent the deactivation rate of this catalyst.

This problem was prepared by Dennis Timberlake.

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t, hr Xhydrocarbon 5 10 15. 20 25 30 35 40 0.57 0.53 0.52 0.50 0.48 0.45 0.43 0.41