Simulation and design microreactor configured with micromixers to intensify the isobutane/1-butene alkylation process

Abstract

Abstract The reaction mechanism of isobutane/1-butene alkylation is very complicated. Many parallel and competitive reactions exist in the reaction system. Stringent mass and heat transfer is a key to achieve satisfied selectivity and yield for this exothermic and mass transfer controlling reaction process. A microreactor configured with staggered herringbone grooves was adopted for intensifying the mass and heat transfer of this process. The hydrodynamic and mixing behaviors of reactants phase and catalyst phase in the microreactor with different channel size were simulated through Computational Fluid Dynamics. The simulation shows that smaller channel depth results in the relatively better mixing performance. The performance of isobutane/1-butene in the designed microreactor were studied systematically. Comparing with the stirring batch reactor, the designed microreactor provides constant reaction temperature and the reaction time can be shortened significantly to 29 s with 1-butene conversion of 91.4%. Under the optimal reaction conditions, the 1-butene conversion was 94.9%, the selectivity of C8 was 91.08%, and the alkylate research octane number was 99.7. The designed microreactor configured with staggered herringbone grooves is much better than the conventional reactors for isobutane/1-butene alkylation due to its excellent mass and heat transfer performance.