Heavy paraffin dehydrogenation and hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline: Effects of operating conditions

Auto-thermal heat exchanger configurations are recognized as a novel concept in process intensification. In the current study, the influence of operating conditions in a novel coupling reactor with radial-flow pattern is investigated for heavy paraffin dehydrogenation process. Catalytic hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline takes place in the exothermic side and supplies the necessary heat for the endothermic dehydrogenation of heavy paraffin reaction. The performance of the reactor is numerically investigated for various key operating variables, such as inlet molar flow rates of exothermic and endothermic streams, number of subsections, and exothermic side angle. The reactor performance is analyzed based on temperature, olefin production rate, and nitrobenzene conversion.