Three-phase reactor representations

Figure 5.3-1. Schematic representation of some types of three-phase reactors [8].

Representation of a hydrogen pumping three-phase catalytic membrane reactor. 

The EBR technology utilizes a three-phase system, which, in the case of hydrocracking of heavy oil fractions, is composed by gas (mainly hydrogen and partially vaporized hydrocarbons), liquid (the nonvaporized heavy portion of the hydrocarbon feed), and solid (the specially designed catalyst whose physical properties lead to fluidizing within the reactor). Schematic representations of EBRs are shown in Figure 10.1. 

The model is formulated based on the state equipment network (SEN) representation (Yeomans and Grossmann, 1999). The general characterization of this representation includes three elements state, task and equipment. A state includes all streams in a process and is characterized by either quantitative or qualitative attributes or both. The quantitative characteristics include flow rate, temperature and pressure, whereas the qualitative characteristics include other attributes such as the phase(s) of the streams. A task, on the other hand, represents the physical and chemical transformations that occur between consecutive states. Equipment provides the physical devices that execute a given task (e.g., reactor, absorber, heat exchanger). 

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