A THEORETICAL EVALUATION OF CATALYST DISTRIBUTION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF NON-IDEAL SLURRY REACTORS

Abstract

Abstract A study has been made of the influence of catalyst concentration profiles on isothermal continuous slurry reactor performance. Solid catalyst behaviour was modelled with the one dimensional sedimentation-dispersion model and that of the liquid with the one dimensional dispersion model. The Power-law kinetic model as well as Michaelis-Menten and a form of Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics were considered. The results of the computations are given in terms of departures of the exit concentration obtained with a selected, non-uniform, catalyst distribution with respect to constant catalyst profile (reference case). Only for intermediate mixing conditions were differences in the exit concentration found. These differences are usually negligible for power law and Michaelis-Menten kinetics (especially for conversion not very high); on the contrary, they became meaningful for the Langmuir-Hinshelwood—at least for some ranges of the parameters. The existence of an optimal catalyst distribution was also discu...