Modeling and simulation of the impregnation step of the merox process

Abstract

The impregnation of activated carbon with Merox catalyst, both at the laboratory and industrial level, has been simulated numerically in order to get a better understanding of the behaviour of the Merox process. The fixed bed unit is simulated by a heterogeneous 1-D model including external mass transfer and pore diffusion. For the solution of model equations different numerical schemes have been applied: global orthogonal collocation, orthogonal collocation on finite elements and the method of characteristics. A comparison is made between the finite element collocation method and the method of characteristics regarding the computer time needed to solve model equations. The results indicate that the method of characteristics requires more computer time.