Effectiveness factor poisoned catalyst

Oxidation kinetics over platinum proceeds at a negative first order at high concentrations of CO, and reverts to a first-order dependency at very low concentrations. As the CO concentration falls towards the center of a porous catalyst, the rate of reaction increases in a reciprocal fashion, so that the effectiveness factor may be greater than one. This effectiveness factor has been discussed by Roberts and Satterfield (106), and in a paper to be published by Wei and Becker. A reversal of the conventional wisdom is sometimes warranted. When the reaction kinetics has a negative order, and when the catalyst poisons are deposited in a thin layer near the surface, the optimum distribution of active catalytic material is away from the surface to form an egg yolk catalyst. 

The Influence of Catalyst Poisoning Processes on Catalyst Effectiveness Factors... 

This situation is termed pore-mouth poisoning. As poisoning proceeds the inactive shell thickens and, under extreme conditions, the rate of the catalytic reaction may become limited by the rate of diffusion past the poisoned pore mouths. The apparent activation energy of the reaction under these extreme conditions will be typical of the temperature dependence of diffusion coefficients. If the catalyst and reaction conditions in question are characterized by a low effectiveness factor, one may find that poisoning only a small fraction of the surface gives rise to a disproportionate drop in activity. In a sense one observes a form of selective poisoning. 

This relation is plotted as curve Bin Figure 12.11. Smith (66) has shown that the same limiting forms for are observed using the concept of effective dififusivities and spherical catalyst pellets. Curve B indicates that, for fast reactions on catalyst surfaces where the poisoned sites are uniformly distributed over the pore surface, the apparent activity of the catalyst declines much less rapidly than for the case where catalyst effectiveness factors approach unity. Under these circumstances, the catalyst effectiveness factors are considerably less than unity, and the effects of the portion of the poison adsorbed near the closed end of the pore are not as apparent as in the earlier case for small hr. With poisoning, the Thiele modulus hp decreases, and the reaction merely penetrates deeper into the pore. 

Now consider the other extreme condition where diffusion is rapid relative to chemical reaction [i.e., hT( 1 — a) is small]. In this situation the effectiveness factor will approach unity for both the poisoned and unpoisoned reactions, and we must retain the hyperbolic tangent terms in equation 12.3.124 to properly evaluate Curve C in Figure 12.11 is calculated for a value of hT = 5. It is apparent that in this instance the activity decline is not nearly as sharp at low values of a as it was at the other extreme, but it is obviously more than a linear effect. The reason for this result is that the regions of the catalyst pore exposed to the highest reactant concentrations do not contribute proportionately to the overall reaction rate because they have suffered a disproportionate loss of activity when pore-mouth poisoning takes place. 

For situations where the reaction is very slow relative to diffusion, the effectiveness factor for the poisoned catalyst will be unity, and the apparent activation energy of the reaction will be the true activation energy for the intrinsic chemical reaction. As the temperature increases, however, the reaction rate increases much faster than the diffusion rate and one may enter a regime where hT( 1 — a) is larger than 2, so the apparent activation energy will drop to that given by equation 12.3.85 (approximately half the value for the intrinsic reaction). As the temperature increases further, the Thiele modulus [hT( 1 — a)] continues to increase with a concomitant decrease in the effectiveness with which the catalyst surface area is used and in the depth to which the reactants are capable of... 

When gum formation proceeds, the minimum temperature in the catalyst bed decreases with time. This could be explained by a shift in the reaction mechanism so more endothermic reaction steps are prevailing. The decrease in the bed temperature speeds up the deactivation by gum formation. This aspect of gum formation is also seen on the temperature profiles in Figure 9. Calculations with a heterogenous reactor model have shown that the decreasing minimum catalyst bed temperature could also be explained by a change of the effectiveness factors for the reactions. The radial poisoning profiles in the catalyst pellets influence the complex interaction between pore diffusion and reaction rates and this results in a shift in the overall balance between endothermic and exothermic reactions. 

Figure 4 shows the dibenzothiophen conversion activities of the aged and regenerated catalysts relative to the fresh catalyst, versus amounts of metals. The activities are considered to be proportional to the remained active sites on the catalyst surface because effectiveness factors are assumed to be unity in this test. An activity loss of the regenerated catalysts is considered to be caused by metal poisoning. 

Fig- 2- Effectiveness factor as a function of 0 and poisoning factor iPj as a function of a (poisoned fraction) for a poisoned catalyst with diffusion and reaction. 

For practical purposes we need to calculate the effectiveness factor of poisoned catalysts when mtraparticle convoction diffusion and reaction are important. Fig. 5 shows as a function of a and <> for and 10 respectively. Fig. 6 shows the influence of X on the catalyst effectiveness factor. 

The overall effectiveness factor of a catalyst pellet can be characterized by the ratio of the observed reaction rate to the rate in the absence of poisoning or external mass transfer resistance. It is expressed in the form of a power-law kinetic model for benzene hydrogenation as... 

In order to understand and modify the functions of a catalyst in a process, it is necessary to determine whether or not rates are determined by physical or chemical steps. Responses to process parameters and catalyst adjustments are different for the two regimes. Diffustonal resistance, in particular, causes unexpected complicrations. We have seen how low effectiveness factors decrease conversion and disguise kinetics, but selcc tivity also can be decreased. In addition, poisoning of pore mouth sites in conjunction with low diffusion results in a much more rapid activity decline than otherwise. 

Apparent activity is defined as the ratio effectiveness factors for the poisoned and unpoisoned catalyst under conditions of pore diffusion limitations... 

The geometric configurations of the catalysts may be ranked by their effectiveness factors, but a better measure is their CO conversion efficiency under identical inlet concentrations, space velocities, and temperatures. Catalyst deterioration caused by poison deposition and thermal damage should also be considered. These factors should be quantified in order to ascertain the optimum thickness of catalytic layers. 

Certain factors are analyzed to determine their effects on automotive catalyst activity. At operating gas velocities, spherical catalysts were more active than monolithic catalysts at comparable catalyst volumes and metals loadings. Palladium was the most active catalyst metal. Platinum in a mixed platinum palladium catalyst stabilizes against the effects of lead poisoning. An optimum activity particulate catalyst would contain about 0.05 wt % total metals on a gamma-alumina base with a platinum content of 0.03-0.04 wt % and a palladium content of 0.01-0.02 wt %. A somewhat thick shell of metals located near the outer surface of the particle provides better catalyst activity than a shell type distribution of metals. 

The normalized effectiveness factor with respect to initial value of reaction rate computed at surface conditions and to the initial activity distribution (non-poisoned catalyst pellet) is defined as following ... 

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