Nonisothermal catalysts concentration profiles

A dynamic experimental method for the investigation of the behaviour of a nonisothermal-nonadiabatic fixed bed reactor is presented. The method is based on the analysis of the axial and radial temperature and concentration profiles measured under the influence of forced uncorrelated sinusoidal changes of the process variables. A two-dimensional reactor model is employed for the description of the reactor behaviour. The model parameters are estimated by statistical analysis of the measured profiles. The efficiency of the dynamic method is shown for the investigation of a pilot plant fixed bed reactor using the hydrogenation of toluene with a commercial nickel catalyst as a test reaction. 

In the present work a method is described to extract the information necessary for modelling from only a few dynamic experimental runs. The method is based on the measurement of the changes of the temperature and concentration profiles in the reactor under the influence of forced simultaneous sinusoidal variations of the process variables. The characteristic features of the dynamic method are demonstrated using the behaviour of a nonisothermal-nonadiabatic pilot plant fixed bed reactor as an example. The test reaction applied was the hydrogenation of toluene to methylcyclohexane on a commercial nickel catalyst. 

Figure 10a - Concentration profiles inside nonisothermal catalysts (y=20,6=0.1,X =0,X =25)...

Consider the case of a nonisothermal reaction A B occurring in the interior of a spherical catalyst pellet of radius R (Figure 6.4). We wish to compute the effect of internal heat and mass transfer resistance upon the reaction rate and the concentration and temperature profiles within the pellet. If Z)a is the effective binary diffusivity of A within the pellet, and we have first-order kinetics, the concentration profile CA(f) is governed by the mole balance... 

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