Effect of Phase Maldistribution on Performance of Two-Phase Catalytic Monolith Reactor and its Comparison with Trickle Bed Reactor

Abstract

Monolith reactors are widely considered as an alternative to the conventional trickle bed reactor. For the commercial deployment of monolith reactors, comparative performance studies are required. Reliable comparative and performance studies require a detailed understanding of the effect of phase distribution/maldistribution on the performance studies. In this work, performance and comparative studies were carried out in a relatively large column that was 4.8 cm in diameter. Experiments were performed in the same conditions that were used in studies for which phase distribution data were available. Since the properties of the catalyst used were different in both the reactors, the apparent kinetics were studied to facilitate the comparison. The hydrogenation of alpha-methyl styrene (AMS) was used as a test reaction. From the performance studies, it was found that the effect of maldistribution on the performance was stronger than the catalyst availability. From the comparative studies, it was found that the monolith reactor with maldistributed flow conditions provides higher productivity than the trickle bed reactor.

Department(s)

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Research Center/Lab(s)

Center for Research in Energy and Environment (CREE)

Second Research Center/Lab

Center for High Performance Computing Research

Keywords and Phrases

Apparent kinetics; Maldistribution; Monoliths; Performance; Trickle bed reactor

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0008-4034; 1939-019X

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2019 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2020

Link to Full Text

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