Periodic Operation of Trickle Bed Reactors: An approach to catalyst design through modeling at the particle scale.

M. ALEJANDRA AYUDE; MIRYAN C. CASSANELLO; PATRICIA M. HAURE; OSVALDO M. MARTINEZ

INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMICAL RESEARCH

American Chemical Society

Año: 2005 vol. 44 p. 9594 - 9600

0888-5885

The behavior of an isothermal catalytic particle in a TBR with ON-OFF liquid flow modulationhas been modeled considering isothermal conditions. The impact of catalytic properties has beeninvestigated considering uniform and egg shell distributions. Furthermore, the effect of varyinginert core porosity for egg shell catalysts has also been addressed. The model representsexperimental trends observed for slow and intermediate cycling. In most cases, egg shell catalystspresented a better performance in comparison with uniform catalysts. However, during cycling,performance depends on working conditions and catalytic properties. Therefore, catalyst designand mode of operation are related issues that need to be defined jointly. The relevance of internalprocesses (reaction, diffusion, and accumulation) and external transport on overall performancehas been addressed. Therefore, the model would serve as a basis, coupled with the developmentat reactor scale, for the integral reactor design.