A structured packed-bed reactor designed for exothermic hydrogenation of acetone

Abstract

Fixed-bed reactors randomly packed with catalysts have many disadvantages that may adversely affect the desired chemical reaction. The increasingly used monolithic reactor, in contrast, has many operational advantages; however, for a kinetically-controlled reaction, it does not contain sufficient catalyst to sustain the reaction. To address the problems associated with both randomly packed-bed reactor and the monolithic reactor, a structured packed-bed reactor was proposed and mathematical models were built for randomly packed-bed reactor and structured packed-bed reactor. Their respective performances were compared when applied to the exothermic reaction of the isopropanol–acetone–hydrogen chemical heat pump system. The results showed that the structured packed-bed reactor performed better in terms of pressure drop and heat transfer capacity, and had a lower radial temperature gradient, indicating that this reactor had a higher effective heat conductivity. Isopropanol on the catalyst particle surfaces was more concentrated near the tube wall because a wall effect existed in the boundary layer around the particle-wall contact points.