Design and optimisation of temperature cycled adsorptive reactors

Abstract

This work describes a novel process in which reaction, separation and heat-exchange are combined within a single unit operation. Thermal and concentrations swing steps are considered in the theoretical design and optimisation of the process configurations, and include co- and counter-current configurations. The operation is carried out over a fixed bed of an admixture of catalyst and adsorbent which selectively removes the primary product from the reaction zone. The adsorbent is periodically regenerated using hot inert gas, which also acts as an energy supply step for the endothermic reaction. An optimisation strategy is used to seek the optimal operating policy that enables the process to separate the primary product, and outperform an optimal PFR in terms of production yield and energy consumption.