Performance of one-dimensional approximations to predict effectiveness factor for pellets with arbitrary shape and abnormal kinetics

MARIANI, NÉSTOR JAVIER; TAULAMET, MARÍA JOSÉ; KEEGAN, SERGIO D.; MARTÍNEZ. OSVALDO MIGUEL; BARRETO, GUILLERMO FERNANDO

Houston

Simposio; 3rd North American Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering (NASCRE-3); 2013

International Symposia on Chemical Reaction Engineering

The analysis of one-dimensional (1D) approximations to deal with reaction and diffusion phenomena inside catalytic pellets of arbitrary shape is undertaken in this contribution. Two 1D models are tested: a single parameter (1D-GC model) and, a slightly more complex alternative that presents three parameters 1D-DV model). Procedures to evaluate model?s parameters relay on criteria of matching the behavior of the actual pellet at high and/or low Thiele moduli. In order to test the models performance, a typical set of commercial catalytic pellets under a variety of abnormal kinetic expression are selected. It is shown that near the limit of steady state multiplicity the 1D-VD model is able to predict effectiveness factor with maximum errors of around 10% for the whole range of Thiele modulus while the 1D-GC models show errors of up to 40%