Mass transfer catalyst particles

M ass Transfer. Mass transfer in a fluidized bed can occur in several ways. Bed-to-surface mass transfer is important in plating appHcations. Transfer from the soHd surface to the gas phase is important in drying, sublimation, and desorption processes. Mass transfer can be the limiting step in a chemical reaction system. In most instances, gas from bubbles, gas voids, or the conveying gas reacts with a soHd reactant or catalyst. In catalytic systems, the surface area of a catalyst can be enormous. Eor Group A particles, surface areas of 5 to over 1000 m /g are possible. 

Catalyst Particle Size. Catalyst activity increases as catalyst particles decrease in size and the ratio of the catalyst s surface area to its volume increases. Small catalyst particles also have a lower resistance to mass transfer within the catalyst pore stmcture. Catalysts are available in a wide range of sizes. Axial flow converters predorninanfly use those in the 6—10 mm range whereas the radial and horizontal designs take advantage of the increased activity of the 1.5—3.0 mm size. 

When the catalyst is expensive, the inaccessible internal surface is a liabihty, and in every case it makes for a larger reactor size. A more or less uniform pore diameter is desirable, but this is practically reahz-able only with molecular sieves. Those pellets that are extrudates of compacted masses of smaller particles have bimodal pore size distributions, between the particles and inside them. Micropores have diameters of 10 to 100 A, macropores of 1,000 to 10,000 A. The macropores provide rapid mass transfer into the interstices that lead to the micropores where the reaction takes place. 

The catalyst should be reduced and sulfided during the initial stages of operation before use. Other catalyst systems used in HDS are NiO/MoOs and NiOAVOs. Because mass transfer has a significant influence on the reaction rates, catalyst performance is significantly affected by the particle size and pore diameter. 

The following equation has been derived for testing mass transfer limitation to the gross catalyst particle (19). 

As our first approach to the model, we considered the controlling step to be the mass transfer from gas to liquid, the mass transfer from liquid to catalyst, or the catalytic surface reaction step. The other steps were eliminated since convective transport with small catalyst particles and high local mixing should offer virtually no resistance to the overall reaction scheme. Mathematical models were constructed for each of these three steps. 

In a number of these processes, a liquid heat- and mass-transfer medium is in direct contact with the catalyst and the reaction mixture. The main function of the liquid is to act as a heat sink and as a medium for convective heat transfer. However, since the liquid may be assumed to cover the solid particles and in this way act as a barrier between the gaseous and the solid phases, it must therefore also function as a mass-transfer medium. 

Farkas and Sherwood (FI, S5) have interpreted several sets of experimental data using a theoretical model in which account is taken of mass transfer across the gas-liquid interface, of mass transfer from the liquid to the catalyst particles, and of the catalytic reaction. The rates of these elementary process steps must be identical in the stationary state, and may, for the catalytic hydrogenation of a-methylstyrene, be expressed by ... 

A hydrocarbon is cracked using a silica-alumina catalyst in the form of spherical pellets of mean diameter 2.0 mm. When the reactant concentration is 0.011 kmol/m3, the reaction rate is 8.2 x 10"2 kmol/(m3 catalyst) s. If the reaction is of first-order and the effective diffusivity De is 7.5 x 10 s m2/s, calculate the value of the effectiveness factor r). It may be assumed that the effect of mass transfer resistance in the. fluid external Lo the particles may be neglected. 

Solve the above equation for a first-order reaction under steady-state conditions, and obtain an expression for the mass transfer rate per unit area at the surface of a catalyst particle which is in the form of a thin platelet of thickness 2L. 

For a bed of catalyst particles in the form of flat platelets it is found that the mass transfer rate is increased by a factor of 1.2 if the velocity of the external fluid is doubled. The mass transfer coefficient ho is proportional to the velocity raised to the power of 0.6. What is the value of ho at the original velocity ... 

When the mass transfer resistances are eliminated, the various gas-phase concentrations become equal a/(/, r, z) = j(r, z) = a(r, z). The very small particle size means that heat transfer resistances are minimized so that the catalyst particles are isothermal. The recycle reactor of Figure 4.2 is an excellent means for measuring the intrinsic kinetics of a finely ground catalyst. At high recycle rates, the system behaves as a CSTR. It is sometimes called a gradientless reactor since there are no composition and temperature gradients in the catalyst bed or in a catalyst particle. 

The concentration of gas over the active catalyst surface at location / in a pore is ai [). The pore diffusion model of Section 10.4.1 linked concentrations within the pore to the concentration at the pore mouth, a. The film resistance between the external surface of the catalyst (i.e., at the mouths of the pore) and the concentration in the bulk gas phase is frequently small. Thus, a, and the effectiveness factor depends only on diffusion within the particle. However, situations exist where the film resistance also makes a contribution to rj so that Steps 2 and 8 must be considered. This contribution can be determined using the principle of equal rates i.e., the overall reaction rate equals the rate of mass transfer across the stagnant film at the external surface of the particle. Assume A is consumed by a first-order reaction. The results of the previous section give the overall reaction rate as a function of the concentration at the external surface, a. ... 

Consider a nonporous catalyst particle where the active surface is all external. There is obviously no pore resistance, but a film resistance to mass transfer can still exist. Determine the isothermal effectiveness factor for first-order kinetics. 

Forward rate constant for reversible surface reaction Exam. 10.2 Reverse rate constant for reversible surface reaction Exam. 10.2 Mass transfer coefficient for a catalyst particle 10.2... 

Most of the actual reactions involve a three-phase process gas, liquid, and solid catalysts are present. Internal and external mass transfer limitations in porous catalyst layers play a central role in three-phase processes. The governing phenomena are well known since the days of Thiele [43] and Frank-Kamenetskii [44], but transport phenomena coupled to chemical reactions are not frequently used for complex organic systems, but simple - often too simple - tests based on the use of first-order Thiele modulus and Biot number are used. Instead, complete numerical simulations are preferable to reveal the role of mass and heat transfer at the phase boundaries and inside the porous catalyst particles. 

Reaction, diffusion, and catalyst deactivation in a porous catalyst layer are considered. A general model for mass transfer and reaction in a porous particle with an arbitrary geometry can be written as follows ... 

Figure 8.8 Internal mass transfer resistance and catalyst deactivation concentration profiles inside a catalyst particle-lactose hydrogenation to lactitol and by-products (sponge Ni).

Traditionally, an average Sherwood number has been determined for different catalytic fixed-bed reactors assuming constant concentration or constant flux on the catalyst surface. In reality, the boundary condition on the surface has neither a constant concentration nor a constant flux. In addition, the Sh-number will vary locally around the catalyst particles and in time since mass transfer depends on both flow and concentration boundary layers. When external mass transfer becomes important at a high reaction rate, the concentration on the particle surface varies and affects both the reaction rate and selectivity, and consequently, the traditional models fail to predict this outcome. 

Speed-up of mixing is known not only for mixing of miscible liquids, but also for multi-phase systems the mass-transfer efficiency can be improved. As an example, for a gas/liquid micro reactor, a mini packed-bed, values of the mass-transfer coefficient K a were determined to be 5-15 s [2]. This is two orders of magnitude larger than for typical conventional reactors having K a of 0.01-0.08 s . Using the same reactor filled with 50 pm catalyst particles for gas/Hquid/solid reactions, a 100-fold increase in the surface-to-volume ratio compared with the dimensions of laboratory trickle-bed catalyst particles (4-8 mm) is foimd. 

In catalysis active sites are operative that allow for an alternative reaction path. For a satisfactory catalyst this alternative pathway leads to higher rates and higher selectivity. In heterogeneous catalysis reactant molecules adsorb at active sites on the catalyst surface at the surface sites reactions occur and products are desorbed subsequently. After desorption, active sites are again available for reactant molecules and the cycle is closed. In homogeneous catalysis the situation is essentially identical. Here complexation and decomplexation occur. A complication in heterogeneous catalysis is the need for mass transfer into and out of the catalyst particle, which is usually porous with the major part of the active sites at the interior surface. 

The simplest case is represented by curve 1. The activity depends linearly on the number of unpoisoned active sites. The interpretation of curves 2 and 3 is less obvious. In the former case the interpretation might be that the least active sites are poisoned first, whereas in the latter case the most active sites are poisoned preferentially. Mass-transfer limitations also play a role in poisoning behaviour. If, for example, the poison is deposited in the outer shell of the catalyst particles, a decrease in catalytic activity can be expected as qualitatively described by curve 3 in Fig. 3.37. 

A more detailed study of this system using benzene and toluene has been reported by Soede et al. (1993) from The Netherlands. They have shown that the role of ZnS04 is to make the Ru hydrophlilic so that the catalyst particles are surrounded by a stagnant water layer. This aids in the rapid removal of the cyclohexene from the catalyst surface to the organic phase. The reaction is operated in mass transfer controlled conditions. 

For catalytic reactions carried out in the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst, the observed reaction rate could be determined by the rate of mass transfer from the bulk of the reaction mixture and the outer surface of the catalyst particles or the rate of diffusion of reactants within the catalyst pores. Consider a simple first order reaction its rate must be related to the concentration of species S at the outer surface of the catalyst as follows ... 

The interpretation is straightforward. At reaction conditions the concentration in the film is lowered by reaction, and, as a consequence, the driving force for mass transfer increases. In a homogeneous system this results in high values of Ha. In a slurry reactor this enhancement can occur if the catalyst particles are so small that they accumulate in the film layer. Table 5.4-4 summarizes expressions for the reaction rate or enhancement factor for various regimes. 

In catalytic gas-liquid-solid systems mass transfer is more complex. The catalyst particles are present in the liquid phase. The expression for the rate of mass transfer from the gas to the liquid is identical to that for systems without a solid catalyst (Eqn. 5.4-67). However, now also mass transfer from the liquid to the solid surface (external mass transfer) and inside the particle (internal mass transfer) have to be considered. 

In a slurry reactor (Fig 5.4.74), the catalyst is present as finely divided particles, typically in the range 1-200 pm. A mechanical stirrer, or the gas flow itself, provides the agitation power required to keep the catalytic particles in suspension. One advantage is the high catalyst utilization not only is the diffusion distance short, it is al.so possible to obtain high mass-transfer rates by proper mixing. 

Very precise kinetic experiments were performed with sponge Ni and Ru/C catalysts in a laboratory-scale pressurized slurry reactor (autoclave) by using small catalyst particles to suppress internal mass transfer resistance. The temperature and pressure domains of the experiments were 20-70 bar and 110-130°C, respectively. Lactitol was the absolutely dominating main product in all of the experiments, but minor amounts of lactulose, lactulitol, lactobionic acid, sorbitol and galactitol were observed as by-products on both Ni and Ru catalysts. The selectivity of the main product, lactitol typically exceeded 96%. 

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