Modeling-based optimization of a fixed-bed industrial reactor for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane

An industrial scale propylene production via oxidative dehydrogenation of propane(ODHP)in multi-tubular reactors was modeled.Multi-tubular fixed-bed reactor used for ODHP process,employing 10000 of small diameter tubes immersed in a shell through a proper coolant flows.Herein,a theory-based pseudo-homogeneous model to describe the operation of a fixed bed reactor for the ODHP to correspondence ole fin over V_2O_5/γ-Al_2O_3catalyst was presented.Steady state one dimensional model has been developed to identify the operation parameters and to describe the propane and oxygen conversions,gas process and coolant temperatures,as well as other parameters affecting the reactor performance such as pressure.Furthermore,the applied model showed that a double-bed multitubular reactor with intermediate air injection scheme was superior to a single-bed design due to the increasing of propylene selectivity while operating under lower oxygen partial pressures resulting in propane conversion of about 37.3%.The optimized length of the reactor needed to reach 100%conversion of the oxygen was theoretically determined.For the single-bed reactor the optimized length of 11.96 m including 0.5m of inert section at the entrance region and for the double-bed reactor design the optimized lengths of 5.72m for the first and 7.32 m for the second reactor were calculated.Ultimately,the use of a distributed oxygen feed with limited number of injection points indicated a signi ficant improvement on the reactor performance in terms of propane conversion and propylene selectivity.Besides,this concept could overcome the reactor runaway temperature problem and enabled operations at the wider range of conditions to obtain enhanced propylene production in an industrial scale reactor.     

垂直管式反应器中超临界甲醇连续制备生物柴油I:相含率及反应中间产物的轴向分布(英文)

Production of biodiesel with supercritical methanol is a green synthesis process.A study was carried out in a vertical tubular reactor with a length of 3700 mm and a diameter of 20 mm at 275-375°C,15 MPa,and molar ratio of methanol to soybean oil of 40︰1.The phase holdup,intermediate product,yield and axial distribution of methyl ester(ME) were investigated.Methanol and oil were mixed non-uniformly due to the formation of biodiesel and difference in their densities,even when the reaction system was in the supercritical state.From top to bottom,the phase holdup of methanol increased and that of oil decreased.As temperature increased,the concentrations of monoglyceride and diglyceride decreased gradually and the ME yield increased.When the temperature reached 300°C,the critical temperature of the system,the ME yield was 50%.Further increase in temperature led to a sharp in-crease of ME yield.However,at 375°C after 1200 s of reaction time,the decomposition rate of ME was greater than its formation rate,reducing the ME yield.     

Influence of dehydrating agents on the oxidative carbonylation of methanol for dimethyl carbonate synthesis over a Cu/Y-zeolite catalyst

The influence of the dehydration by metal oxides on the synthesis of dimethyl carbonate(DMC) via oxidative carbonylation of methanol was studied. A Cu/Y-zeolite catalyst was prepared by the ion exchange method from CuCl_2·2 H_2O and the commercial NH_4-form of the Y type zeolite. The catalyst was characterized by X-ray fluorescence(XRF), N_2 adsorption(BET method), X-ray diffraction(XRD), and temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia(NH_3-TPD) to evaluate its Cu and Cl content, surface area, structure, and acidity. Reaction tests were carried out using an autoclave(batch reactor) for 18 h at 403 K and 5.5 MPa(2CH_3OH + 1/2O_2+CO?(CH_3O)_2CO + H_2O). The influence of various dehydrating agents(ZnO, MgO, and CaO) was examined with the aim of increasing the methanol conversion(X_(MeOH), MeOH conversion). The MeOH conversion increased upon addition of metal oxides in the order CaO MgO ZnO, with the DMC selectivity(SDMC) following the order MgO CaO ZnO. The catalysts and dehydrating agents were characterized before and after the oxidative carbonylation of methanol by thermogravimetric and differential thermogravimetric(TG/DTG), and XRD to confirm that the dehydration reaction occurred via the metal oxide(MO + H_2O → M(OH)_2). The MeOH conversion increased from 8.7% to 14.6% and DMC selectivity increased from 39.0% to 53.1%, when using the dehydrating agent CaO.     

Liquid-phase esterification of methacrylic acid with methanol catalyzed by cation-exchange resin in a fixed bed reactor: Experimental and kinetic studies

The kinetic behavior of esterification between methacrylic acid and methanol catalyzed by NKC-9 resin was studied in a fixed bed reactor. The reaction was conducted in the temperature range of 323.15 to 368.15 K with the molar ratio of reactants from 0.8 to 1.4 under certain pressure. The measurement data were regression with the pseudo-homogeneous(P-H), Eley-Rideal(E-R), and Langmuir-Hinshelwood(L-H) heterogeneous kinetic models. Independent adsorption experiments were implemented to gain the a...     

Investigation of the liquid recycle in the reactor cascade of an industrial scale ebullated bed hydrocracking unit

One of the commercial means to convert heavy oil residue is hydrocracking in an ebullated bed. The ebullated bed reactor includes a complex gas–liquid–solid backmixed system which attracts the attention of many scientists and research groups. This work is aimed at the calculation of the internal recycle flow rate and understanding its effect on other parameters of the ebullated bed. Measured data were collected from an industrial scale residual hydrocracking unit consisting of a cascade of three ebullated bed reactors. A simplified block model of the ebullated bed reactors was created in Aspen Plus and fed with measured data. For reaction yield calculation, a lumped kinetic model was used. The model was verified by comparing experimental and calculated distillation curves as well as the calculated and measured reactor inlet temperature. Influence of the feed rate on the recycle ratio(recycle to feed flow rate) was estimated. A relation between the recycle flow rate, pump pressure difference and catalyst inventory has been identified. The recycle ratio also affects the temperature gradient along the reactor cascade. Influence of the recycle ratio on the temperature gradient decreased with the cascade member order.     

由合成气生产二甲醚过程反应协同作用的研究

Influence of reaction temperature, pressure and space velocity on the direct synthesis of dimethyl ether (DME) from syngas is studied in an isothermal fixed-bed reactor. The catalyst is a physical mixture of C30 copper-based methanol (MeOH) synthesis catalyst and ZSM-5 dehydration catalyst. The experimental results show that the chemical synergy between methanol synthesis reaction and methanol dehydration reaction is evident. The conversion of carbon monoxide is over 90%.     

乙酸与甲醇的催化酯化

Esterification of methyl alcohol with acetic acid catalysed by Amberlyst-15 (cation-exchange resin) was carried out in a batch reactor in the temperature ranging between 318-338 K, at atmospheric pressure. The reaction rate increased with increase in catalyst concentration and reaction temperature, but decreased with an increase in water concentration. Stirrer speed had virtually no effect on the rate under the experimental conditions. The rate data were correlated with a second-order kinetic model based on homogeneous reaction. The apparent activation energy was found to be 22.9kJmol-1 for the formation of methyl acetate. The methyl acetate production was carried out as batch and continuous in a packed bed reactive distillation column with high purity methyl acetate produced.     

Light olefin production by catalytic co-cracking of Fischer–Tropsch distillate with methanol and the reaction kinetics investigation

Catalytic co-cracking of Fischer–Tropsch(FT) light distillate and methanol combines highly endothermic olefin cracking reaction with exothermic methanol conversion over ZSM-5 catalyst to produce light olefins through a nearly thermoneutral process. The kinetic behavior of co-cracking reactions was investigated by different feed conditions: methanol feed only, olefin feed only and co-feed of methanol with olefins or F–T distillate. The results showed that methanol converted to C_2–C_6 olefins in first-order parallel reaction at low space time, methylation and oligomerization–cracking prevailed for the co-feed of methanol and C_2–C_5 olefins, while for C_6–C_8 olefins,monomolecular cracking was the dominant reaction whether fed alone or co-fed with methanol. For FT distillate and methanol co-feed, alkanes were almost un-reactive, C_3–C_5 olefins were obtained as main products, accounting for 71 wt% for all products. A comprehensive co-cracking reaction scheme was proposed and the model parameters were estimated by the nonlinear least square method. It was verified by experimental data that the kinetic model was reliable to predict major product distribution for co-cracking of FT distillate with methanol and could be used for further reactor development and process design.     

The influence mechanism of solvent on the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate

The hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate(DMO) for the producing of C2-C4 alcohols with methanol as solvent was researched at the temperature of 270 °C to 310 °C. Ethylene glycol(EG) was the main product at low temperature and the selectivity of which was 61.9% at 230 °C. However, EG selectivity decreased sharply with the increase of temperature while ethanol became the main liquid products with the selectivity of 43.5% at 270 °C. It can be ascribed to a thorough hydrogenation of DMO at a high temperature. In addition, the promotion of Guerbet reaction led to the production of propanol and butanol. Simultaneously, the amount of gas products including CO, CO_2 and dimethyl ether(DME) also increased, which became a competition factor in the conversion of DMO to liquid products including C2-C4 alcohols. The blank test was carried out with pure methanol as feedstock with and without Cu/SiO_2 catalyst, which revealed that methanol was involved in the formation of gas products and higher alcohols on Cu-based catalyst, and the main gas product was CO.     

合成气制二甲醚三相淤浆床反应器的数学模型研究

A mathematical model for a bubble column slurry reactor is presented for dimethyl ether synthesis from syngas. Methanol synthesis from carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide by hydrogenation and the methanol dehydration are considered as independent reactions, in which methanol, dimethyl ether and carbon dioxide are the key components. In this model, the gas phase is considered to be in plug flow and the liquid phase to be in partly back mixing with axial distribution of solid catalyst. The simulation results show that the axial dispersion of solid catalysts, the operational height of the slurry phase in the bubble column slurry reactor, and the reaction results are influenced by the reaction temperature and pressure, which are the basic data for the scale-up of reactor.     

Effects of temperature and feed composition on catalytic dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether over γ-alumina

Catalytic dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether (DME) is performed in an adiabatic fixed bed heterogeneous reactor by using acidic γ-alumina. By changing the mean average temperature of the catalyst bed (or operating temperature of the reactor) from 233 up to 303 °C, changes in methanol conversion were monitored. The results showed that the conversion of methanol strongly depended on the reactor operating temperature. Also, conversion of pure methanol and mixture of methanol and water versus time were studied and the effect of water on deactivation of the catalyst was investigated. The results revealed that when pure methanol was used as the process feed, the catalyst deactivation occurred very slowly. But, by adding water to the feed methanol, the deactivation of the γ-alumina was increased very rapidly; so much that, by increasing water content to 20 weight percent by weight, the catalyst lost its activity by about 12.5 folds more than in the process with pure methanol. Finally, a temperature dependent model developed to predict pure methanol conversion to DME correlates reasonably well with experimental data.     

Synthesis of dimethyl ether (DME) by catalytic distillation

The intrinsic kinetics of liquid phase catalytic dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether over a macroporous sulphonic acid ion exchange resin was determined in a fixed-bed micro-reactor in the temperature range of 391–423 K and pressures up to 2.0 MPa. The kinetic model based on Eley–Rideal mechanism, as well as the power-rate law model, was adopted for fitting the experimental data. However, the Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism is not feasible for describing the dehydration reaction of methanol, as deduced from the macroscopic kinetic data and/or no dependence of methanol conversion on initial methanol concentration in the absence of water at the inlet using acetone as inert solvent. Moreover, an improved process consisting of the combination of a fixed-bed reactor and a catalytic distillation column for the synthesis of DME (Process A) was proposed, and a mathematical model was established, into which the intrinsic kinetics obtained in this work was incorporated. The comparison of operating performance among the improved process, Process B consisting of a fixed-bed reactor and two ordinary distillation columns, and Process C consisting of a catalytic distillation column and an ordinary distillation column was also made. It was found that the improved process is more promising than others in energy consumption, production capacity and column number under the same product purity, and is easy to be implemented based on Process B that is currently used in the actual industrial plants with a long catalyst lifetime.     

MeOH to DME in bubbling fluidized bed: Experimental and modelling

Methanol dehydration over a ZSM‐5 containing catalyst was studied in a fluidized bed reactor. At temperatures ranging from 250 to 325°C, methanol conversion varied from 30% at a contact times of 0.14 s and approached 100% of the equilibrium conversion at a contact time starting from 10 s. Sequential and parallel reactions were negligible at low temperatures while hydrocarbon formation became appreciable at 325°C. Online gas analysis by mass spectrometry provided real‐time measurements at a frequency of 4.4 Hz that allowed for fast determination of steady‐state conditions. Gas phase residence time distribution (RTD) measurements indicated that axial dispersion was essentially negligible at short contact times with a shallow bed of catalyst. With longer residence times, the flow pattern could be approximated by six continuously stirred‐tank reactors (CSTR) in series. Both the simple 1D hydrodynamic model and a detailed multi‐zone fluidized model were used to interpret the experimental data to derive a kinetic expression for the dehydration of methanol to di‐methyl ether (DME). The expression includes the reverse reaction that is most often neglected in the literature. The reaction data were best fit with the kinetics based on the 1D model. The fluidized bed is a viable reactor type for kinetic measurements of highly exothermic reactions where hotspots and radial and axial temperature gradients are problematic in fixed beds.     

工艺条件对甲醇脱水制二甲醚反应的影响

以La改性氧化铝为催化剂,在模拟绝热固定床反应器中考察工艺条件对甲醇气相脱水制二甲醚反应的影响。结果表明,甲醇进料温度210℃时,甲醇脱水反应剧烈,绝热温升约130℃。催化剂床层热点温度低于380℃时,二甲醚选择性大于98%,过高温度产生大量副产物甲烷。反应压力对反应影响甚微。在甲醇进料温度240℃(热点温度370℃)、甲醇进料空速1.5 h-1和反应系统压力为50 k Pa条件下,甲醇转化率大于84%,二甲醚选择性大于98.5%,连续运转2 000 h,催化剂无明显失活迹象。     

Machine learning-assisted multiscale modeling of an autothermal fixed-bed reactor for methanol to propylene process

The current commercial multistage reactor for methanol to propylene (MTP) process suffers from poor propylene selectivity and catalyst efficiency, mainly because of the low inlet methanol concentration and long residence time. In this work, we proposed an autothermal co-current flow reactor for MTP process, where the reaction heat is continuously removed through heat exchange with cold reactants, thus single-stage reactor can be used with higher methanol inlet concentration. The reactor feasibility was investigated by a three-dimensional multiscale model, in which the diffusion–reaction interaction inside catalyst particle was described by a neural network model trained by machine learning. With the feeding methanol fraction increasing to 30%, propylene selectivity reaches 82.27% while the space velocity approaches 2.68 g_MeOH g_cat⁻¹ h⁻¹ at 99.97% methanol conversion, about 1.4 and 3.8 times those of a commercial multibed reactor, respectively. With proper catalyst bed dilution, the reaction temperature is well controlled between 700 and 754 K.     

Dehydration of Methanol to Dimethyl Ether by Catalytic Distillation

The kinetics of liquid catalytic dehydration of methanol over an ion exchange resin (Amberlyst 35) has been determined for the temperature range 343 to 403 K using a batch reactor. The experimental data are described well by an Eley‐Rideal type kinetic expression, for which the surface reaction is the rate‐determining step. A catalytic distillation process for methanol dehydration to dimethyl ether (DME) has been modeled using the experimentally determined kinetic data. The results were incorporated into the rate‐controlled reaction mode for RadFrac, a part of the commercial simulation program Aspen Plus. It was shown that synthesis of high purity DME can be achieved using a single catalytic distillation column. Thus there is significant potential for reduction of overall capital cost for a plant for methanol dehydration to DME when compared to conventional production facilities that involve separate reaction and distillation processes.     

Simulation of fixed bed reactor for dimethyl ether synthesis

Dimethyl Ether (DME) is considered as one of the most promising candidates for a substitute for LPG and diesel fuel. We analyzed one-step DME synthesis from syngas in a shell and tube type fixed bed reactor with consideration of the heat and mass transfer between catalyst pellet and reactants gas and effectiveness factor of catalysts together with reactor cooling through reactor wall. Simulation results showed strong effects of pore diffusion. We compared two different arrangements of catalysts, mixture of catalyst pellets (methanol synthesis catalyst and methanol dehydration catalyst) and hybrid catalyst. Hybrid catalyst gave better performance than a mixture of pellets in terms of CO conversion and DME productivity, but more difficulties with reactor temperature control. Use of inert pellets and inter-cooling was also simulated as a means of controlling maximum reactor temperature.     

Conversion of 2-propanol over chromium aluminum orthophosphates

The catalytic conversion (dehydration/dehydrogenation) of 2-propanol on a series of CrPO₄-AlPO₄ (CrAlP) catalysts, which were differently prepared and thermally treated at 773–1073 K, has been studied by microcatalytic pulse reactor technique at different temperatures (473–573 K). Kinetic parameters for conversion of 2-propanol to propene have been obtained by analysis of the data through the Bassett-Habgood equation for first-order reaction processes. The influence of the reaction temperature upon alcohol conversion and product selectivities was also investigated. Catalytic performance was affected by the precipitation agent. Catalysts obtained in propylene oxide-aqueous ammonia showed the highest activity towards propene compared to other catalysts. Calcination at increasing temperatures caused a decrease in the activity due to the decrease in surface acid character. The results of dehydration to propene can be well interpreted through the differences in the number and strength of acid sites, which were gas-chromatographically measured using pyridine and 2,6-dimethylpyridine chemisorbed at different temperatures (573 and 673 K). Dehydrogenation to 2-propanone occurred to a small extent at all reaction temperatures and, besides, its conversion changed slightly with reaction temperature. Propene selectivity strongly increased with increasing reaction temperature.