An NMR Imaging Study of Steady-State and Periodic Operation Modes of a Trickle Bed Reactor

NMR imaging has been applied to study the steady-state and the periodic operations of a functioning trickle bed reactor. It has been revealed that under conditions of the continuous supply of a liquid reagent to the catalyst bed, the bed was mostly filled with the liquid phase and was characterized by the uniform and stationary distribution of a liquid phase, whereas under conditions of the periodic supply of a liquid reagent to the catalyst bed with the same liquid flow velocity the bed was mostly dry and was characterized by a non-stationary distribution of the liquid phase. The oscillations of the liquid phase content within the bed, corresponding to the modulated liquid flow, have been observed. It has been shown that performing the hydrogenation reaction in a trickle bed reactor under conditions of the periodic supply of a liquid reagent to the catalyst bed leads to the intensification of the hydrogenation process. It becomes apparent in the significant increase of the temperature of the catalyst bed as well as in the increase of the conversion degree in the regimes under forced time-varying liquid flow rates in comparison to the steady-state regime of the reactor operation.