CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The valve-operated reverse-flow catalytic reactoris an efficient system for the treatment of air streams contaminated with smallamounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Nonetheless, it has two drawbackswhen operated at low cycle periods: the emission of the volume withouttreatment present in the region close to the reactor input and an unavoidable reductionof the valve lifetime. Upon consideration that the use of shorter cycle periodswould enable the design of more compact units, we investigated the option ofoperating with reverse flow by means of a rotary catalytic reactor. Thisalternative eliminates the necessity of valves for the flow reversal and enablesto allot a small fraction of the total cross section to be fed with clean air andprevent the VOCs that remain close to the reactor input from being dischargedto the atmosphere.The aim of this work is to analyse thetreatment of an air stream contaminated with ethanol and ethyl acetate by meansof mathematical simulation of reverse-flow operations in both valve-operated androtary catalytic reactors. To that end, monolithic structures with squarechannels are assumed for both types of reverse-flow reactors, a design strategyis proposed and the results for both types of reactors are compared. It isconcluded that the rotary reverse-flow reactor arises as a better option.