Tubular reactors, heat transfer

One of the advantages of the fluidized bed reactor is that the heat of reaction is relatively easily removed compared with other reactors, e.g. fixed bed, tubular fixed bed reactors. Heat transfer coefficients are an order of magnitude higher in fluidized bed reactors. Moreover one can, very often, dispense with heat exchanger surfaces, the heat of reaction being removed, then, by injection into the bed of a cold solid or liquid. The situation would be similar for an endothermic reaction. 

Because the characteristic of tubular reactors approximates plug-flow, they are used if careful control of residence time is important, as in the case where there are multiple reactions in series. High surface area to volume ratios are possible, which is an advantage if high rates of heat transfer are required. It is sometimes possible to approach isothermal conditions or a predetermined temperature profile by careful design of the heat transfer arrangements. 

Flow in tubular reactors can be laminar, as with viscous fluids in small-diameter tubes, and greatly deviate from ideal plug-flow behavior, or turbulent, as with gases, and consequently closer to the ideal (Fig. 2). Turbulent flow generally is preferred to laminar flow, because mixing and heat transfer... 

Tubular Fixed-Bed Reactors. Bundles of downflow reactor tubes filled with catalyst and surrounded by heat-transfer media are tubular fixed-bed reactors. Such reactors are used most notably in steam reforming and phthaUc anhydride manufacture. Steam reforming is the reaction of light hydrocarbons, preferably natural gas or naphthas, with steam over a nickel-supported catalyst to form synthesis gas, which is primarily and CO with some CO2 and CH. Additional conversion to the primary products can be obtained by iron oxide-catalyzed water gas shift reactions, but these are carried out ia large-diameter, fixed-bed reactors rather than ia small-diameter tubes (65). The physical arrangement of a multitubular steam reformer ia a box-shaped furnace has been described (1). 

The hydrocarbon gas feedstock and Hquid sulfur are separately preheated in an externally fired tubular heater. When the gas reaches 480—650°C, it joins the vaporized sulfur. A special venturi nozzle can be used for mixing the two streams (81). The mixed stream flows through a radiantly-heated pipe cod, where some reaction takes place, before entering an adiabatic catalytic reactor. In the adiabatic reactor, the reaction goes to over 90% completion at a temperature of 580—635°C and a pressure of approximately 250—500 kPa (2.5—5.0 atm). Heater tubes are constmcted from high alloy stainless steel and reportedly must be replaced every 2—3 years (79,82—84). Furnaces are generally fired with natural gas or refinery gas, and heat transfer to the tube coil occurs primarily by radiation with no direct contact of the flames on the tubes. Design of the furnace is critical to achieve uniform heat around the tubes to avoid rapid corrosion at "hot spots."... 

Tubular flow reactors are suited to high production rates at short residence times (sec or mmj and when substantial heat transfer is needed. Embedded tubes or shell-and-tube construction are then used. 

It is generally desirable to minimize the diameter of a tubular reactor, because the leak rate in case of a tube failure is proportional to its cross-sectional area. For exothermic reactions, heat transfer will also be more efficient with a smaller tubular reactor. However, these advantages must be balanced against the higher pressure drop due to flow through smaller reactor tubes. 

The advantages of continuous tubular reactors are well known. They include the elimination of batch to batch variations, a large heat transfer area and minimal handling of chemical products. Despite these advantages there are no reported commercial instances of emulsion polymerizations done in a tubular reactor instead the continuous emulsion process has been realized in series-connected stirred tank reactors (1, . ... 

The study of the peak temperature sensitivity to the reactor operating parameters and the construction of sensitivity boundary curves for stable reactor operation were previously reported ( l). This paper presents a computer study on conceptual relationships between the conversion-product properties and the reactor operating parameters in a plug flow tubular reactor of free radical polymerization. In particular, a contour map of conversion-molecular weight relationships in a reactor of fixed size is presented and the sensitivity of its relationship to the choice of initiator system, solvent system and heat transfer system are discussed. 

Figure 1. Typical reactor temperature profile for continuous addition polymerization a plug-flow tubular reactor. Kinetic parameters for the initiator 1 = 10 ppm Ea = 32.921 kcal/mol In = 26.492 In sec f = 0.5. Reactor parameter [(4hT r)/ (DpCp)] = 5148.2. [(Cp) = heat capacity of the reaction mixture (p) = density of the reaction mixture (h) = overall heat-transfer coefficient (Tf) = reactor jacket temperature (r) = reactor residence time (D) = reactor diameter].

The computer simulation study of the operation of the tubular free radical polymerization reactor has shown that the conversion and the product properties are sensitive to the operating parameters such as initiator type, jacket temperature, and heat transfer for a reactor of fixed size. The molecular weight-conversion contour map is particularly significant and it is used in this paper as a basis for a comparison of the reactor performances. 

Example 5.11 The results of Table 5.1 suggest that scaling a tubular reactor with constant heat transfer per unit volume is possible, even with the further restriction that the temperature driving force be the same in the large and small units. Find the various scaling factors for this form of scaleup for turbulent liquids and apply them to the pilot reactor in Example 5.10. 

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