Mesoscale coke formation

Coke Formation at Mesoscale Effect of Topological Structure of Zeolites 305... 

Methanol to olefins (MTO), which provides a new route to produce light olefins such as ethylene and propylene from abundant natural materials (e.g., coal, natural gas or biomass), has been recently industrialized by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences. In this contribution, the process development of MTO is introduced, which emphasizes the importance of mesoscale studies and focuses on three aspects a mesoscale modeling approach for MTO catalyst pellet, coke formation and control in MTO reactor, and scaling up of the microscale-MTO fluidized bed reactor to pilot-scale fluidized bed reactor. The challenges and future directions in MTO process development are also briefed. 

The coke formation is critical for MTO reaction over SAPO-34 catalyst. The influence of coke formation is twofold a certain amount of coke deposition can prompt the selectivity to light olefins, while it also makes the catalyst deactivate rapidly. Thus, the understanding of the coke formation at microscale is extremely important for controlling coke distribution in the reactor. The influences of zeofite structure and reaction temperature on coke formation have been discussed to illustrate the essence of the mesoscale researches. However, there is still a lot of work to be explored at mesoscale concerning the coke formation. These results are eventually expected to benefit the reactor design and operation. 

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