Tray reactors

Fig. 2.15. Reactors for producing these materials include batch, continuously vented, tray reactors, twin-screw extruders, and vented single-screw extruders. These production devices will not be covered in this text because they are of more interest to the manufacturing engineer than the extrusion process engineer.

Gases with a higher sulfur dioxide content than is utilizable in catalyst tray reactors can be processed in a fluidized bed reactor... 

Many designs of photoreactors are found in the literature (a) aimular reactors, (b) flat-tray reactors, (c) merry-go-round reactors, (d) collimated beam reactors, (e) single lamp multitubular reactor, and (f) multilamp tubular reactor (27-29). Aimular photoreactors where the UV lamp is mounted inside the iimer aimulus of the reactor are more commonly used, and a typical diagram (applied for the gas phase UV-oxidation) is shown in the following figure. 

SmF, 2.5 L batch reactor, pH 4.5, 250rpm, aeration rate 2vvm, 36h Continuous reactor (hemostat) at a dilution rate of 0.05 h" SmF, batch reactor flask, airlift and stirred tank, pH 5.5, 48 h Continuous reactor SSF, 2cmparticles, plastic bags, 28°C, 60% water content SmF, 25-L stirred tank reactor, 400rpm, 28°C with airflow SSF, 3 trays reactor (9.6 L), airflow rate 0.81 min-i, 26°C... 

Smiley, S. H. and Brater, D. C. Conversion of Uranium Trioxide to Uranium Tetrafluoride in vibrating tray reactors. Current Commission Methods for Producing UOs. UFi and UFs. U.S.A.E.C. Report, TID-5295 (1956). 

In the peroxidation reactor ethylbenzene is converted with air at 146 °C and 2 bar to form a 12-14 wt% solution of ethylbenzene hydroperoxide in ethylbenzene. The reaction takes place in the liquid phase and conversion is limited to 10% for safety reasons. The reactor is a bubble tray reactor with nine separate reaction zones. To avoid decomposition of the formed peroxide the temperature is reduced from 146 °C to 132 °C over the trays. In the epoxidation reactor the reaction solution is mixed with a homogeneous molybdenum naphthenate catalyst. Epoxidation of propylene in the liquid phase is carried out at 100-130 °C and 1-35 bar. The crude product stream (containing PO, unreacted propylene, a-phenylethanol, acetophenone, and other impurities) is sent to the recycle column to remove propylene. The catalyst can be removed by an aqueous alkali wash and phase separation. The crude PO, obtained as head stream in the crude PO column, is purified by distillations. The unconverted reactant ethylbenzene can be recycled in the second recycle column. The bottom stream containing a-phenylethanol is sent to the dehydration reactor. The vapor-phase dehydration of a-phenylethanol to styrene takes place over a titanium/alumina oxide catalyst at 200-280 °C and 0.35 bar (conversion 85%, selectivity 95%). 

Effect of Number of Reactive Trays. In the base case, stages 7-23 contain catalyst, so the reactive zone has 17 trays. Reactor effluent is fed on stage 28 and methanol on stage 23 (the lowest reactive stage). There are 6 rectifying trays and 11 stripping trays. 

As shown in Fig. 10.6, the vapor from the reactor flows into the bottom of a distillation column, and high-purity dichloroethane is withdrawn as a sidestream several trays from the column top. The design shown in Fig. 10.6 is elegant in that the heat of reaction is conserved to run the separation and no washing of the reactor... 

In this condenser, part of the stripper off-gases are condensed (the heat of condensation is used to generate low pressure steam). The carbamate formed and noncondensed NH and CO2 are put into the reactor bottom and conversion of the carbamate into urea takes place. The reactor is sized to allow enough residence time for the reaction to approach equiUbrium. The heat required for the urea reaction and for heating the solution is suppHed by additional condensation of NH and CO2. The reactor which is lined with 316 L stainless steel, contains sieve trays to provide good contact between the gas and Hquid phases and to prevent back-mixing. The stripper tubes are 25-22-2 stainless steel. Some strippers are still in service after almost 30 years of operation. 

Reaction times can be as short as 10 minutes in a continuous flow reactor (1). In a typical batch cycle, the slurry is heated to the reaction temperature and held for up to 24 hours, although hold times can be less than an hour for many processes. After reaction is complete, the material is cooled, either by batch cooling or by pumping the product slurry through a double-pipe heat exchanger. Once the temperature is reduced below approximately 100°C, the slurry can be released through a pressure letdown system to ambient pressure. The product is then recovered by filtration (qv). A series of wash steps may be required to remove any salts that are formed as by-products. The clean filter cake is then dried in a tray or tunnel dryer or reslurried with water and spray dried. 

Relationships Between Objects, Processes, and Events. Relationships can be causal, eg, if there is water in the reactor feed, then an explosion can take place. Relationships can also be stmctural, eg, a distiUation tower is a vessel containing trays that have sieves in them or relationships can be taxonomic, eg, a boiler is a type of heat exchanger. Knowledge in the form of relationships connects facts and descriptions that are already represented in some way in a system. Relational knowledge is also subject to uncertainty, especiaUy in the case of causal relationships. The representation scheme has to be able to express this uncertainty in some way. 

The designer usually wants to specify stream flow rates or parameters in the process, but these may not be directly accessible. For example, the desired separation may be known for a distiUation tower, but the simulation program requires the specification of the number of trays. It is left up to the designer to choose the number of trays that lead to the desired separation. In the example of the purge stream/ reactor impurity, a controller module may be used to adjust the purge rate to achieve the desired reactor impurity. This further complicates the iteration process. 

FIG. 12-85 Perforated-tray type of reactor-discharge control. 

FIG. 12-866 Vap or disengaging tray at the top of a gravity-hed catalytic reactor. This design may also he employed for the addition of gas to a bed of solids. 

FIG. 23-25 Typ es of industrial gas/Hqiiid reactors, (a) Tray tower, (h) Packed, counter current, (c) Packed, parallel current, (d) Falling liquid film, (e) Spray tower, if) Bubble tower, (g) Venturi mixer, h) Static in line mixer, ( ) Tubular flow, (j) Stirred tank, (A,) Centrifugal pump, (/) Two-phase flow in horizontal tubes. 

The second classification is the physical model. Examples are the rigorous modiiles found in chemical-process simulators. In sequential modular simulators, distillation and kinetic reactors are two important examples. Compared to relational models, physical models purport to represent the ac tual material, energy, equilibrium, and rate processes present in the unit. They rarely, however, include any equipment constraints as part of the model. Despite their complexity, adjustable parameters oearing some relation to theoiy (e.g., tray efficiency) are required such that the output is properly related to the input and specifications. These modds provide more accurate predictions of output based on input and specifications. However, the interactions between the model parameters and database parameters compromise the relationships between input and output. The nonlinearities of equipment performance are not included and, consequently, significant extrapolations result in large errors. Despite their greater complexity, they should be considered to be approximate as well. 

These are less expensive and less troublesome than tubular reactors. All the catalyst volume needed for a given conversion is usually divided in several beds or stages. In large catalyst volumes, the stages may be in separate vessels, or in small volumes in the same vessel but divided into several trays. 

Figure 8.2.2 Conceptual scheme for a tray-type adiabatic reactor.

Wiped film stills in place of continuous still pots —Centrifugal extractors in place of extraction columns —Flash dryers in place of tray dryers —Continuous reactors in place of batch —Plug flow reactors in place of CFSTRs —Continuous in-line mixers in place of mixing vessels... 

The minimum number of trays necessary to debutanize the effluent from an alkylation reactor will be calculated. The feed, products, and vapor-liquid equilibrium costants of the key components at conditions of temperature and pressure corresponding to the top tray and reboiler are shown in Table 8-1. 

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