Effectiveness factor, porous

The differential material balances contain a large number of physical parameters describing the structure of the porous medium, the physical properties of the gaseous mixture diffusing through it, the kinetics of the chemical reaction and the composition and pressure of the reactant mixture outside the pellet. In such circumstances it Is always valuable to assemble the physical parameters into a smaller number of Independent dimensionless groups, and this Is best done by writing the balance equations themselves in dimensionless form. The relevant equations are (11.20), (11.21), (11.22), (11.23), (11.16) and the expression (11.27) for the effectiveness factor. 

Reactions in porous catalyst pellets are Invariably accompanied by thermal effects associated with the heat of reaction. Particularly In the case of exothermic reactions these may have a marked influence on the solutions, and hence on the effectiveness factor, leading to effectiveness factors greater than unity and, In certain circumstances, multiple steady state solutions with given boundary conditions [78]. These phenomena have attracted a great deal of interest and attention in recent years, and an excellent account of our present state of knowledge has been given by Arls [45]. 

Intraparticle mass transport resistance can lead to disguises in selectivity. If a series reaction A — B — C takes place in a porous catalyst particle with a small effectiveness factor, the observed conversion to the intermediate B is less than what would be observed in the absence of a significant mass transport influence. This happens because as the resistance to transport of B in the pores increases, B is more likely to be converted to C rather than to be transported from the catalyst interior to the external surface. This result has important consequences in processes such as selective oxidations, in which the desired product is an intermediate and not the total oxidation product CO2. 

Rates and selectivities of soHd catalyzed reactions can also be influenced by mass transport resistance in the external fluid phase. Most reactions are not influenced by external-phase transport, but the rates of some very fast reactions, eg, ammonia oxidation, are deterrnined solely by the resistance to this transport. As the resistance to mass transport within the catalyst pores is larger than that in the external fluid phase, the effectiveness factor of a porous catalyst is expected to be less than unity whenever the external-phase mass transport resistance is significant, A practical catalyst that is used under such circumstances is the ammonia oxidation catalyst. It is a nonporous metal and consists of layers of wire woven into a mesh. 

Fig. 6. The three ideal zones (I—III) representing the rate of change of reaction for a porous carbon with increasing temperature where a and b are intermediate zones, is activation energy, and -E is tme activation energy. The effectiveness factor, Tj, is a ratio of experimental reaction rate to reaction rate which would be found if the gas concentration were equal to the atmospheric gas concentration (80).

Diffusion effects can be expected in reactions that are very rapid. A great deal of effort has been made to shorten the diffusion path, which increases the efficiency of the catalysts. Pellets are made with all the active ingredients concentrated on a thin peripheral shell and monoliths are made with very thin washcoats containing the noble metals. In order to convert 90% of the CO from the inlet stream at a residence time of no more than 0.01 sec, one needs a first-order kinetic rate constant of about 230 sec-1. When the catalytic activity is distributed uniformly through a porous pellet of 0.15 cm radius with a diffusion coefficient of 0.01 cm2/sec, one obtains a Thiele modulus y> = 22.7. This would yield an effectiveness factor of 0.132 for a spherical geometry, and an apparent kinetic rate constant of 30.3 sec-1 (106). 

If the same quantity of active ingredient is concentrated in an outside shell of thickness 0.015 cm, one obtains y> = 2.27. This would yield an effectiveness factor of 0.431 in a slab geometry, and the apparent kinetic constant has risen to 99.2 sec-1. If the active ingredient is further concentrated in a shell of 0.0025 cm, one obtains y> = 0.38, an effectiveness factor of 0.957, and an apparent kinetic constant of 220 sec-1. These calculations are comparable to the data given in Fig. 15. This analysis applies just as well to the monolith, where the highly porous alumina washcoat should not be thicker than 0.001 in. 

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 ratio of the overall rate of reaction to that which would be achieved in the absence of a mass transfer resistance is referred to as the effectiveness factor rj. SCOTT and Dullion(29) describe an apparatus incorporating a diffusion cell in which the effective diffusivity De of a gas in a porous medium may be measured. This approach allows for the combined effects of molecular and Knudsen diffusion, and takes into account the effect of the complex structure of the porous solid, and the influence of tortuosity which affects the path length to be traversed by the molecules. 

Many theoretical embellishments have been made to the basic model of pore diffusion as presented here. Effectiveness factors have been derived for reaction orders other than first and for Hougen and Watson kinetics. These require a numerical solution of Equation (10.3). Shape and tortuosity factors have been introduced to treat pores that have geometries other than the idealized cylinders considered here. The Knudsen diffusivity or a combination of Knudsen and bulk diffusivities has been used for very small pores. While these studies have theoretical importance and may help explain some observations, they are not yet developed well enough for predictive use. Our knowledge of the internal structure of a porous catalyst is still rather rudimentary and imposes a basic limitation on theoretical predictions. We will give a brief account of Knudsen diffusion. 

The ratio of the observed reaction rate to the rate in the absence of intraparticle mass and heat transfer resistance is defined as the elFectiveness factor. When the effectiveness factor is ignored, simulation results for catalytic reactors can be inaccurate. Since it is used extensively for simulation of large reaction systems, its fast computation is required to accelerate the simulation time and enhance the simulation accuracy. This problem is to solve the dimensionless equation describing the mass transport of the key component in a porous catalyst[l,2]... 

Figure 15.3 Simulated effectiveness factor for porous carbon electrode as a function of the exchange current density jo and DCo for Ip] = 0.4 V for a 10wt% Pt/C catalyst layer with 7= 10, A = 140m g p = 2gcm, Nafion volume fraction 0.6, thickness p,m, and ionic conductivity 0.05 Scm See the text for details. (Reproduced from Gloaguen et al. [1994], with kind permission from Springer Science and Business Media.)...

Quantitative analytical treatments of the effects of mass transfer and reaction within a porous structure were apparently first carried out by Thiele (20) in the United States, Dam-kohler (21) in Germany, and Zeldovitch (22) in Russia, all working independently and reporting their results between 1937 and 1939. Since these early publications, a number of different research groups have extended and further developed the analysis. Of particular note are the efforts of Wheeler (23-24), Weisz (25-28), Wicke (29-32), and Aris (33-36). In recent years, several individuals have also extended the treatment to include enzymes immobilized in porous media or within permselective membranes. The important consequence of these analyses is the development of a technique that can be used to analyze quantitatively the factors that determine the effectiveness with which the surface area of a porous catalyst is used. For this purpose we define an effectiveness factor rj for a catalyst particle as... 

This section is concerned with analyses of simultaneous reaction and mass transfer within porous catalysts under isothermal conditions. Several factors that influence the final equation for the catalyst effectiveness factor are discussed in the various subsections. The factors considered include different mathematical models of the catalyst pore structure, the gross catalyst geometry (i.e., its apparent shape), and the rate expression for the surface reaction. 

The Effectiveness Factor Analysis in Terms of Effective Diffusivities First-Order Reactions on Spherical Pellets. Useful expressions for catalyst effectiveness factors may also be developed in terms of the concept of effective diffusivities. This approach permits one to write an expression for the mass transfer within the pellet in terms of a form of Fick s first law based on the superficial cross-sectional area of a porous medium. We thereby circumvent the necessity of developing a detailed mathematical model of the pore geometry and size distribution. This subsection is devoted to an analysis of simultaneous mass transfer and chemical reaction in porous catalyst pellets in terms of the effective diffusivity. In order to use the analysis with confidence, the effective diffusivity should be determined experimentally, since it is difficult to obtain accurate estimates of this parameter on an a priori basis. 

Thus a zero-order reaction appears to be 1/2 order and a second-order reaction appears to be 3/2 order when dealing with a fast reaction taking place in porous catalyst pellets. First-order reactions do not appear to undergo a shift in reaction order in going from high to low effectiveness factors. These statements presume that the combined diffusivity lies in the Knudsen range, so that this parameter is pressure independent. 

Effectiveness Factors for Hougen-Watson Rate Expressions. The discussion thus far and the vast majority of the literature dealing with effectiveness factors for porous catalysts are based on the assumption of an integer-power reaction rate expression (i.e., zero-, first-, or second-order kinetics). In Chapter 6, however, we stressed the fact that heterogeneous catalytic reactions are more often characterized by more complex rate expressions of the Hougen-Watson type. Over a narrow range of... 

When the effectiveness factors for both reactions approach unity, the selectivity for two independent simultaneous reactions is the ratio of the two intrinsic reaction-rate constants. However, at low values of both effectiveness factors, the selectivity of a porous catalyst may be greater than or less than that for a plane-catalyst surface. For a porous spherical catalyst at large values of the Thiele modulus s, the effectiveness factor becomes inversely proportional to (j>S9 as indicated by equation 12.3.68. In this situation, equation 12.3.133 becomes... 

This equation gives the differential yield of V for a porous catalyst at a point in a reactor. For equal combined diffusivities and the case where hT approaches zero (no diffusional limitations on the reaction rate), this equation reduces to equation 9.3.8, since the ratio of the hyperbolic tangent terms becomes y/k2 A/ki v As hT increases from about 0.3 to about 2.0, the selectivity of the catalyst falls off continuously. The selectivity remains essentially constant when both hyperbolic tangent terms approach unity. This situation corresponds td low effectiveness factors and, in tliis case, equation 12.3.149 becomes... 

The analysis of the literature data shows that zeolites modified with nobel metals are among perspective catalysts for this process. The main drawbacks related to these catalysts are rather low efficiency and selectivity. The low efficiency is connected with intracrystalline diffusion limitations in zeolitic porous system. Thus, the effectiveness factor for transformation of n-alkanes over mordenite calculated basing on Thiele model pointed that only 30% of zeolitic pore system are involved in the catalytic reaction [1], On the other hand, lower selectivity in the case of longer alkanes is due to their easier cracking in comparison to shorter alkanes. 

For a flat-plate porous particle of diffusion-path length L (and infinite extent in other directions), and with only one face permeable to diffusing reactant gas A, obtain an expression for tj, the particle effectiveness factor defined by equation 8.5-5, based on the following... 

The catalyst activity depends not only on the chemical composition but also on the diffusion properties of the catalyst material and on the size and shape of the catalyst pellets because transport limitations through the gas boundary layer around the pellets and through the porous material reduce the overall reaction rate. The influence of gas film restrictions, which depends on the pellet size and gas velocity, is usually low in sulphuric acid converters. The effective diffusivity in the catalyst depends on the porosity, the pore size distribution, and the tortuosity of the pore system. It may be improved in the design of the carrier by e.g. increasing the porosity or the pore size, but usually such improvements will also lead to a reduction of mechanical strength. The effect of transport restrictions is normally expressed as an effectiveness factor q defined as the ratio between observed reaction rate for a catalyst pellet and the intrinsic reaction rate, i.e. the hypothetical reaction rate if bulk or surface conditions (temperature, pressure, concentrations) prevailed throughout the pellet [11], For particles with the same intrinsic reaction rate and the same pore system, the surface effectiveness factor only depends on an equivalent particle diameter given by... 

The activity calculated from (7) comprises both film and pore diffusion resistance, but also the positive effect of increased temperature of the catalyst particle due to the exothermic reaction. From the observed reaction rates and mass- and heat transfer coefficients, it is found that the effect of external transport restrictions on the reaction rate is less than 5% in both laboratory and industrial plants. Thus, Table 2 shows that smaller catalyst particles are more active due to less diffusion restriction in the porous particle. For the dilute S02 gas, this effect can be analyzed by an approximate model assuming 1st order reversible and isothermal reaction. In this case, the surface effectiveness factor is calculated from... 

For a more detailed analysis of measured transport restrictions and reaction kinetics, a more complex reactor simulation tool developed at Haldor Topsoe was used. The model used for sulphuric acid catalyst assumes plug flow and integrates differential mass and heat balances through the reactor length [16], The bulk effectiveness factor for the catalyst pellets is determined by solution of differential equations for catalytic reaction coupled with mass and heat transport through the porous catalyst pellet and with a film model for external transport restrictions. The model was used both for optimization of particle size and development of intrinsic rate expressions. Even more complex models including radial profiles or dynamic terms may also be used when appropriate. 

The other approach is more complicated and requires a deeper knowledge of the agglomerate structure or yields more fitting parameters. In this approach, the porous-electrode equations are used, but now the effectiveness factor and the agglomerate model equations are incorporated. Hence, eq 64 is used to get the transfer current in each volume element. The gas composition and the overpotential... 

Experiments were designed to study the effects of porous media on spray combustion and resulting emissions. A number of factors could affect combustion performance with the presence of porous inserts, including the location, thickness, and pore size of the porous insert and operating conditions such as firing rate and fuel-air ratio. For different operating conditions, the baseline tests without porous inserts were completed. After the baseline tests, the same operating conditions were repeated with porous layers installed at various locations. More tests were then completed with different porous material properties. 

The study of the intra-phase mass transfer in SCR reactors has been addressed by combining the equations for the external field with the differential equations for diffusion and reaction of NO and N H 3 in the intra-porous region and by adopting the Wakao-Smith random pore model to describe the diffusion of NO and NH3 inside the pores [30, 44]. The solution of the model equations confirmed that steep reactant concentration gradients are present near the external catalyst surface under typical industrial conditions so that the internal catalyst effectiveness factor is low [27]. 

Figure 18.6 Effectiveness factor versus Mj for porous particles of various shapes.

Figure 7-13 Plots of effectiveness factor 17 versus Thiele modulus

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