Improving the Performance of Fixed-Bed Catalytic Reactors by Innovative Catalyst Distribution

A comprehensive mathematical model is developed to simulate the interactions of the complex processes that take place in typical catalytic chemical reactors. This mathematical model includes correlations representing various modes of mass transport and chemical reactions. To illustrate the application and value of this approach for reactor optimizations, the model is applied to the case of series reactions with a desirable intermediate compound and the risk of degradation of this compound if the process conditions are not optimized. The modeling results show that in such cases, which are very common in practice, replacing the conventional uniform catalyst distribution with a novel non-uniform distribution will significantly improve the performance of the reactor and the production of the desirable compound. Various catalyst distribution options are compared, and a novel non-uniform loading of catalyst is identified that gives a much better performance compared to the conventional approach. The model is versatile and useful for both the design as well as the optimization of the catalytic fixed-bed reactors in a wide variety of reactor and reaction conditions.