Effect of liquid flow modulation on the performance of an integral trickle-bed reactor for ethanol oxidation

M. S. FRAGUIO; P. R. BONELLI; O. M. MARTINEZ; A. L. CUKIERMAN; M. C. CASSANELLO

SANTA FE, ARGENTINA

Congreso; Third Mercosur Congress on Process Systems Engineering. First Mercosur Congress on Chemical Engineering; 2001

Abstract. The effect of liquid flow modulation on the performance of an integral trickle-bed reactor use for carrying out the catalytic wet oxidation of ethanol is analyzed. A Pt/Al2O3 catalyst (1% w/w, mean particle diameter dp= 3mm) is employed for the experiments. Liquid flow is opened/closed periodically by means of a programmable logic controller with a given split and modifying the total cycle period. The reactor operates isothermally at 70 ºC during the whole cycles. The time dependence of the outlet ethanol concentration in the integral TBR is examined and compared with the one obtained for the steady-state operation. Variations in the flow averaged conversions obtained with periodic operation in comparison with the attainable steady-state conversion are determined for different cycle periods. A maximum improvement is found for relatively low cycle periods.