Parametric sensitivity and runaway in catalytic reactors: Experiments and theory using carbon monoxide oxidation as an example

Abstract

Although many theoretical studies are available in the literature dealing with parametric sensitivity and runaway of chemical reactors, experimental studies are relatively few. This paper described an investigation in which an attempt was made to experimentally verify theoretical results for parametric sensitivity of a fixed-bed catalytic reactor. Carbon monoxide oxidation on CuO catalyst supported on γ-alumina pellets was used as the test reaction. Regions of parametric sensitivity obtained from the generalized sensitivity criterion were compared with corresponding regions obtained experimentally. A good agreement between experiment and theory was obtained.