Suspended bed reactors

Three-phase reactors 2 can thus be divided into two main classes A. Suspended-bed reactors, and B. Fixed-bed reactors. 

A. Suspended-bed reactors. These may be further subdivided according to how the particles are maintained in suspension in the reactor. 

The individual mass transfer and reaction steps outlined in Fig. 4.15 will now be described quantitatively. The aim will be firstly to obtain an expression for the overall rate of transformation of the reactant, and then to examine each term in this expression to see whether any one step contributes a disproportionate resistance to the overall rate. For simplicity we shall consider the gas to consist of just a pure reactant A, typically hydrogen, and assume the reaction which takes place on the interior surface of the catalyst particles to be first order with respect to this reactant only, i.e. the reaction is pseudo first-order with rate constant A ,. In an agitated tank suspended-bed reactor, as shown in Fig. 4.20, the gas is dispersed as bubbles, and it will be assumed that the liquid phase is well-mixed , i.e. the concentration CAL of dissolved A is uniform throughout, except in the liquid films immediately surrounding the bubbles and the particles. (It will be assumed also that the particles are not so extremely small that some are present just beneath the surface of the liquid within the diffusion film and are thus able to catalyse the reaction before A reaches the bulk of the liquid.)... 

Three-Phase Fluidised Suspended-Bed Reactor—Combination of Mass Transfer and Reaction Steps... 

In many important cases of reactions involving gas, hquid, and solid phases, the solid phase is a porous catalyst. It may be in a fixed bed or it may be suspended in the fluid mixture. In general, the reaction occurs either in the liquid phase or at the liquid/solid interface. In fixed-bed reactors the particles have diameters of about 3 mm (0.12 in) and occupy about 50 percent of the vessel volume. Diameters of suspended particles are hmited to O.I to 0.2 mm (0.004 to 0.008 in) minimum by requirements of filterability and occupy I to 10 percent of the volume in stirred vessels. 

Two basically different reactor technologies are currently in operation low temperature and high temperature. The former operates at -220 °C and 25-45 bar, employing either a multitubular, fixed bed (i.e. trickle bed) reactor or a slurry bubble column reactor with the catalyst suspended in the liquid hydrocarbon wax product. 

Various devices can be used to determine the kinetics and rates of chemical weathering. In addition to the batch pH-stats, flow through columns, fluidized bed reactors and recirculating columns have been used (Schnoor, 1990). Fig. 5.15a illustrates the fluidized bed reactor pioneered by Chou and Wollast (1984) and further developed by Mast and Drever (1987). The principle is to achieve a steady state solute concentration in the reactor (unlike the batch pH-stat, where solute concentrations gradually build up). Recycle is necessary to achieve the flow rate to suspend the bed and to allow solute concentrations to build to a steady state. With the fluidized bed apparatus, Chou and Wollast (1984) could control the AI(III) concentration (which can inhibit the dissolution rate) to a low level at steady state by withdrawing sample at a high rate. 

Industrial hazardous wastewater can be treated aerobically in suspended biomass stirred-tank bioreactors, plug-flow bioreactors, rotating-disc contactors, packed-bed fixed-biofilm reactors (or biofilters), fluidized bed reactors, diffused aeration tanks, airlift bioreactors, jet bioreactors, membrane bioreactors, and upflow bed reactors [28,30]. 

The original derivation leading to Eqs. 40 to 47 is used in the next chapter on packed beds. The extension leading to Eqs. 48 to 51 is used in Chapter 20, when dealing with suspended solids reactors. 

The fluidized bed and other suspended solid reactor types are considered in the next chapter. 

Fluidized-bed reactor (FLBR) The up-flow gas or liquid phase suspends the fine solid particles, which remain in the reactor (Figure 3.8). This reactor is of tubular shape with a relatively low aspect ratio of length to diameter. The most common application of FLBR is the classical FCC process. 

Slurry reactors are similar to fluidized-bed reactors in that a gas is passed through a reactor containing solid catalyst particles suspended in a fluid. In slurries, the catalyst is suspended in a liquid, whereas in fluidized beds, the suspending fluid is the reacting gas itself. 

The trickle bed reactors that operate in the downflow configuration and have a number of operational problems, including poor distribution of liquid and pulsing operation at high liquid and gas loading. Scaleup of these liquid-gas-solid reactors is much more difficult than a gas-solid or gas-liquid reactor. Nevertheless, the downflow system is convenient when the bed is filled with small catalyst particles. And, because the catalyst particles are small, these reactors are quite effective as filters of the incoming feed. Any suspended fine solids, such as fine clays from production operations, accumulate at the front end of the bed. Eventually, this will lead to high pressure differentials between the inlet and outlet end of the reactor. 

Expanded-bed reactors operate in such a way that the catalyst remains loosely packed and is less susceptible to plugging and they are therefore more suitable for the heavier feedstocks as well as for feedstocks that may contain considerable amounts of suspended solid material. Because of the nature of the catalyst bed, such suspended material will pass through the bed without causing frequent plugging problems. Furthermore, the expanded state of motion of the catalyst allows frequent withdrawal from, or addition to, the catalyst bed during operation of the reactor without the necessity of shutdown of the unit for catalyst replacement. This property alone makes the ebullated reactor ideally suited for the high-metal feedstocks (i.e., residua and heavy oils) which rapidly poison a catalyst with the ever-present catalyst replacement issues (Figure 5-8). 

In a suspended bed or entrained flow reactor technology, the coal is crushed, dried, and then pulverized to fine powder in a crusher and mill. As Table 9.1 shows, the coal particles used in entrained flow reactors are very small. The pulverized coal is transported with air to the furnace (primary air), and secondary air is heated and fed into the combustor to ensure complete combustion. The residence time of the coal in the furnace is typically around 1-2 s, which usually suffices for complete combustion. However, not all coal burns completely, and fly ash will be generated (see Table 9.1). 

Particulate catalysts are usually sold by weight but are charged to a reactor by volume. Thus, the density of the support has a strong impact on the economics of the process. Fluidization in moving-bed reactors is also dependent on catalyst density. The density of powders affects the extent to which they can be suspended and eventually settled in slurry-phase reactors. 

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