Catalytic internal effectiveness factor

The resistance to mass transfer of reactants within catalyst particles results in lower apparent reaction rates, due to a slower supply of reactants to the catalytic reaction sites. Ihe long diffusional paths inside large catalyst particles, often through tortuous pores, result in a high resistance to mass transfer of the reactants and products. The overall effects of these factors involving mass transfer and reaction rates are expressed by the so-called (internal) effectiveness factor f, which is defined by the following equation, excluding the mass transfer resistance of the liquid film on the particle surface [1, 2] ... 

This micromodel could be used to investigate the effect ofzeoHte particle size on its catalytic performance. The influence of crystal size actually represents the impact of species diffusion on the reaction, and could be quantified by the internal effective factors, which are defined as following... 

The mesoscale model is of significant importance in catalyst design, since it could be used to investigate the effect of size, distribution, and amount of microporous crystal particles in the catalyst pellet on the overall catalytic performance. For convenience, as Eq. (3) in microscale model, another internal effective factor is defined to quantify catalytic performance of the pellet ... 

Inspection of Fig. 15.3 reveals that while for jo 0.1 nAcm , the effectiveness factor is expected to be close to 1, for a faster reaction with Jo 1 p,A cm , it will drop to about 0.2. This is the case of internal diffusion limitation, well known in heterogeneous catalysis, when the reagent concentration at the outer surface of the catalyst grains is equal to its volume concentration, but drops sharply inside the pores of the catalyst. In this context, it should be pointed out that when the pore size is decreased below about 50 nm, the predominant mechanism of mass transport is Knudsen diffusion [Malek and Coppens, 2003], with the diffusion coefficient being less than the Pick diffusion coefficient and dependent on the porosity and pore stmcture. Moreover, the discrete distribution of the catalytic particles in the CL may also affect the measured current owing to overlap of diffusion zones around closely positioned particles [Antoine et ah, 1998]. 

In the spatially ID model of the monolith channel, no transverse concentration gradients inside the catalytic washcoat layer are considered, i.e. the influence of internal diffusion is neglected or included in the employed reaction-kinetic parameters. It may lead to the over-prediction of the achieved conversions, particularly with the increasing thickness of the washcoat layer (cfi, e.g., Aris, 1975 Kryl et al., 2005 Tronconi and Beretta, 1999 Zygourakis and Aris, 1983). To overcome this limitation, the effectiveness-factor concept can be used in a limited extent (cf. Section III.D). Despite the drawbacks coming from the fact that internal diffusion effects are implicitly included in the reaction kinetics, the ID plug-flow model is extensively used in automotive industry, thanks to the reasonable combination of physical reliability and short computation times. 

Then the classical Thiele modulus ( ) and the effectiveness factor (t/), expressing the extent of internal diffusion limitations in the catalytic washcoat layer of thickness 8, can be calculated according to (cf. Aris, 1975 Froment and Bischoff, 1979, 1990)... 

The support has an internal pore structure (i.e., pore volume and pore size distribution) that facilitates transport of reactants (products) into (out of) the particle. Low pore volume and small pores limit the accessibility of the internal surface because of increased diffusion resistance. Diffusion of products outward also is decreased, and this may cause product degradation or catalyst fouling within the catalyst particle. As discussed in Sec. 7, the effectiveness factor Tj is the ratio of the actual reaction rate to the rate in the absence of any diffusion limitations. When the rate of reaction greatly exceeds the rate of diffusion, the effectiveness factor is low and the internal volume of the catalyst pellet is not utilized for catalysis. In such cases, expensive catalytic metals are best placed as a shell around the pellet. The rate of diffusion may be increased by optimizing the pore structure to provide larger pores (or macropores) that transport the reactants (products) into (out of) the pellet and smaller pores (micropores) that provide the internal surface area needed for effective catalyst dispersion. Micropores typically have volume-averaged diameters of 50 to... 

Paul Weisz suggested in a lucid note published in 1973 that cells, and indeed even entire organisms, have evolved in a way that maintains unity effectiveness factor [24]. That is, the size of the catalytic assembly is increased in nature as the overall rate at which that assembly operates decreases, and the relationship between characteristic dimension and activity can be well approximated by the observable modulus criterion for reaction limitation. It is possible that Weisz s arguments may fail under process conditions, and internal gradients within a compartment or cell may be important. However, at present it appears that the most important transport limitations and activities in cells are those that operate across cellular membranes. Therefore, to understand and to manipulate key transport activities in cells, it is essential that biochemical engineers understand these membrane transport processes and the factors influencing their operation. A brief outline of some of the important systems and their implications in cell function and biotechnology follows. 

The whole of the internal surface area of a porous catalyst will be available for the catalytic reaction if the rates of diffusion of reactant into the pores, and of product out of them, are fast compared with the rate of the surface reaction. In contrast, if the reactant diffuses slowly but reacts rapidly, conversion to product will occur near the pore entrances and the interior of the pores will play no role in the catalysis. Ion exchange resins are typical examples of catalysts for which such considerations are important (cf. Sect. 2.3). The detailed mathematics of this problem have been treated in several texts [49-51] and we shall now quote some of the main theoretical results derived for isothermal conditions. The parameters involved tend to be those employed by chemical engineers and differ somewhat from those used elsewhere in this chapter. In particular, the catalyst material (active + support) is present in the form of pellets of volume Vp and the catalytic rates vv are given per unit volume of pellet (mols m 3). The decrease in vv brought about by pore diffusion is then expressed by an effectiveness factor, rj, defined by... 

For exothermic reactions (fi > 0) a sufficient temperature rise due to heat transfer limitations may increase the rate constant Ay. and this increase may offset the diffusion limitation on the rate of reaction (the decrease in reactant concentrations CA), leading to a larger internal rate of reaction than at surface conditions CAs. This, eventually, leads to 17 > 1. As the heat of reaction is a strong function of temperature, Eq. (9.24) may lead to multiple solutions and three possible values of the effectiveness factor may be obtained for very large values of /I and a narrow range of catalytic reactions, (3 is usually <0.1, and therefore, we do not observe multiple values of the effectiveness factor. The criterion... 

Exemplary results of modeling processes inside the catalytic layer are presented in Fig. 9. The solid lines show the dependency of the overall effectiveness factor on the relative distribution of the catalyst between the comers and the side regions. The two cases represent two levels of the first-order rate constants, with the faster reaction in case (b). As expected, the effectiveness factor of the first reaction drops as more catalyst is deposited in the comers. The effectiveness factor for the second reaction increases in case (a) but decreases in case (b). The latter behavior is caused by depletion of B deep inside the catalytic layer. What might be surprising is the rather modest dependency of the effectiveness factor on the washcoat distribution. The explanation is that internal diffusion is not important for slow reactions, while for fast reactions the available external surface area becomes the key quantity, and this depends only slightly on the washcoat distribution for thin layers. The dependence of the effectiveness factor on the distribution becomes more pronounced for consecutive reactions described by Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson kinetics [26]. 

In our discussion of surface reactions in Chapter 11 we assumed that each point in the interior of the entire catalyst surface was accessible to the same reactant concentration. However, where the reactants diffuse into the pores within the catalyst pellet, the concentration at the pore mouth will be higher than that inside the pore, and we see that the entire catalytic surface is not accessible to the same concentration. To account for variations in concentration throughout the pellet, we introduce a parameter known as the effectiveness factor. In this chapter we will develop models for diffusion and reaction in two-phase systems, which include catalyst pellets and CVD reactors. The types of reactors discussed in this chapter will include packed beds, bubbling fluidized beds, slurry reactors, and trickle beds. After studying this chapter you will be able to describe diffusion and reaction in two- and three-phase systems, determine when internal pore diffusion limits the overall rate of reaction, describe how to go about eliminating this limitation, and develop models for systems in which both diffusion and reaction play a role (e.g., CVD). 

Wheeler has summarized the work on internal diffusion for catalytic cracking of gas-oil. At 500°C the rate data for fixed-bed operation, with relatively large ( -in.) catalyst particles and that for fluidized-bed reactors (very small particle size) are about the same. This suggests that the effectiveness factor for the large particles is high. Confirm this by estimating rj for the -in. catalyst if the... 

A temperature gradient would also be expected. For an isothermal case, with rj set equal to 1, multiple steady-state solutions may be found (see Figure 10), and the concentration gradient is very significant at temperatures above 427°C (800°F). The non-isothermal catalytic effectiveness factors for positive order kinetics under external and internal diffusion effects were studied by Carberry and Kulkarni (8) they also considered negative order kinetics. 

At relatively low pressures, what dimensionless differential equations must be solved to generate basic information for the effectiveness factor vs. the intrapellet Damkohler number when an isothermal irreversible chemical reaction occurs within the internal pores of flat slab catalysts. Single-site adsorption is reasonable for each component, and dual-site reaction on the catalytic surface is the rate-limiting step for A -h B C -h D. Use the molar density of reactant A near the external surface of the catalytic particles as a characteristic quantity to make all of the molar densities dimensionless. Be sure to define the intrapellet Damkohler number. Include all the boundary conditions required to obtain a unique solution to these ordinary differential equations. 

Notice that the molar density of key-limiting reactant A on the external surface of the catalytic pellet is always used as the characteristic quantity to make the molar density of component i dimensionless in all the component mass balances. This chapter focuses on explicit numerical calculations for the effective diffusion coefficient of species i within the internal pores of a catalytic pellet. This information is required before one can evaluate the intrapellet Damkohler number and calculate a numerical value for the effectiveness factor. Hence, 50, effective is called the effective intrapellet diffusion coefficient for species i. When 50, effective appears in the denominator of Ajj, the dimensionless scaling factor is called the intrapellet Damkohler number for species i in reaction j. When the reactor design focuses on the entire packed catalytic tubular reactor in Chapter 22, it will be necessary to calcnlate interpellet axial dispersion coefficients and interpellet Damkohler nnmbers. When there is only one chemical reaction that is characterized by nth-order irreversible kinetics and subscript j is not required, the rate constant in the nnmerator of equation (21-2) is written as instead of kj, which signifies that k has nnits of (volume/mole)"" per time for pseudo-volumetric kinetics. Recall from equation (19-6) on page 493 that second-order kinetic rate constants for a volnmetric rate law based on molar densities in the gas phase adjacent to the internal catalytic surface can be written as... 

Here we indicate how previous effectiveness factor analyses may be extended to situations where the pellet is not isothermal. Consider the case of a spherical pellet within which a catalytic reaction is taking place. If we examine an infinitesimally thin spherical shell with internal radius r similar to that shown in Figure 12.4 and write a steady-state energy balance over the interior core of the pellet, it is obvious that the heat flow outward by conduction across the sphere of radius r must be equal to the energy transformed by reaction within the central core. The latter quantity is just... 

The first step in heterogeneous catalytic processes is the transfer of the reactant from the bulk phase to the external surface of the catalyst pellet. If a nonporous catalyst is used, only external mass and heat transfer can influence the effective rate of reaction. The same situation will occur for very fast reactions, where the reactants are completely exhausted at the external catalyst surface. As no internal mass and heat transfer resistances are considered, the overall catalyst effectiveness factor corresponds to the external effectiveness factor,... 

To avoid internal mass transfer resistances in the porous catalytic layer, its thickness, must be limited. To ensure an effectiveness factor of > 0.95 in an isothermal catalyst layer, the following criterion must be fulfilled [14] ... 

Figure 1 shows the dependence effectiveness factor tj = roi/ri on Thiele modulus for the selected values of parameter p and for = 2, v = 2 (sphere), yt = 7, yi = 12, 5 = 1 (endothermic reactions) and xa(1) = 1. One can find that for Peffectiveness factor rj assumes in the certain ranges of Thiele modulus values much higher than unity. This means that in the cases discussed the internal diffusion, in contrast to the classical isothermal or endothermic catalytic reactions, may considerably increase the rate of the heterogeneous autocatalytic reactions. 

The presence of internal mass transfer limitations depends on the reaction rate and the thickness of the porous catalytic layer and is usually expressed via the effectiveness factor, which is defined as the ratio of the observed reaction rate and the rate that would be observed in the absence of concentration gradient throughout the catalytic layer. For an isothermal layer, the maximum thickness of catalytic coating should not exceed Scat to ensure an effectiveness factor of 0.95 [10] ... 

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