Multiphase Catalytic Reactors – Theory, Design, Manufacturing, and Applications

Zeynep Ilsen Önsan received her B.Sc degree (1968) in chemical engineering from former Robert College (now Bogazici University), Istanbul-Turkey, and her Ph.D. degree and D.I.C. (1972) in chemical engineering and heterogeneous catalysis from Imperial College, London-UK. She pioneered in establishing heterogeneous catalysis research in Turkey at Bogazici University, directed several sizeable research and institution-building projects, and has 40 years of teaching and research experience in heterogeneous catalysis and chemical reaction engineering and 25 years of research collaboration and teaching in bioreaction engineering. Dr. Önsan is a professor of chemical engineering at Bogazici University and has 85 research papers including 74 articles in SCI journals and a book chapter coauthored with Dr. Avci on reactor design for fuel processing. Ahmet Kerim Avci?received BS, MS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from Bogazici University in 1996, 1997 and 2003, respectively. He worked as an R&D manager in Procter & Gamble, Brussels-Belgium. In 2005, he joined chemical engineering department of Bogazici University, where he is currently a full professor. He is the leader of numerous research projects funded by governmental institutes and industry, and is the author of more than 25 papers in refereed SCI journals. He is the holder of Distinguished Young Scientist Fellowship (Turkish Academy of Sciences, 2009), Excellence in Research Award (Bogazi?i University Foundation, 2010), Eser Tumen Outstanding Achievement Award for Young Scientists (2011) and Professor Mustafa N. Parlar Research Incentive Award (2011).

List of Contributors, x Preface, xii Part 1 Principles of catalytic reaction engineering 1 Catalytic reactor types and their industrial significance, 3 Zeynep Ilsen Onsan and Ahmet Kerim Avci 1.1 Introduction, 3 1.2 Reactors with fixed bed of catalysts, 3 1.2.1 Packed-bed reactors, 3 1.2.2 Monolith reactors, 8 1.2.3 Radial flow reactors, 9 1.2.4 Trickle-bed reactors, 9 1.2.5 Short contact time reactors, 10 1.3 Reactors with moving bed of catalysts, 11 1.3.1 Fluidized-bed reactors, 11 1.3.2 Slurry reactors, 13 1.3.3 Moving-bed reactors, 14 1.4 Reactors without a catalyst bed, 14 1.5 Summary, 16 References, 16 2 Microkinetic analysis of heterogeneous catalytic systems, 17 Zeynep Ilsen Onsan 2.1 Heterogeneous catalytic systems, 17 2.1.1 Chemical and physical characteristics of solid catalysts, 18 2.1.2 Activity, selectivity, and stability, 21 2.2 Intrinsic kinetics of heterogeneous reactions, 22 2.2.1 Kinetic models and mechanisms, 23 2.2.2 Analysis and correlation of rate data, 27 2.3 External (interphase) transport processes, 32 2.3.1 External mass transfer: Isothermal conditions, 33 2.3.2 External temperature effects, 35 2.3.3 Nonisothermal conditions: Multiple steady states, 36 2.3.4 External effectiveness factors, 38 2.4 Internal (intraparticle) transport processes, 39 2.4.1 Intraparticle mass and heat transfer, 39 2.4.2 Mass transfer with chemical reaction: Isothermal effectiveness, 41 2.4.3 Heat and mass transfer with chemical reaction, 45 2.4.4 Impact of internal transport limitations on kinetic studies, 47 2.5 Combination of external and internal transport effects, 48 2.5.1 Isothermal overall effectiveness, 48 2.5.2 Nonisothermal conditions, 49 2.6 Summary, 50 Nomenclature, 50 Greek letters, 51 References, 51 Part 2 Two-phase catalytic reactors 3 Fixed-bed gas solid catalytic reactors, 55 Joao P. Lopes and Alirio E. Rodrigues 3.1 Introduction and outline, 55 3.2 Modeling of fixed-bed reactors, 57 3.2.1 Description of transport reaction phenomena, 57 3.2.2 Mathematical model, 59 3.2.3 Model reduction and selection, 61 3.3 Averaging over the catalyst particle, 61 3.3.1 Chemical regime, 64 3.3.2 Diffusional regime, 64 3.4 Dominant fluid solid mass transfer, 66 3.4.1 Isothermal axial flow bed, 67 3.4.2 Non-isothermal non-adiabatic axial flow bed, 70 3.5 Dominant fluid solid mass and heat transfer, 70 3.6 Negligible mass and thermal dispersion, 72 3.7 Conclusions, 73 Nomenclature, 74 Greek letters, 75 References, 75 4 Fluidized-bed catalytic reactors, 80 John R. Grace 4.1 Introduction, 80 4.1.1 Advantages and disadvantages of fluidized-bed reactors, 80 4.1.2 Preconditions for successful fluidized-bed processes, 81 4.1.3 Industrial catalytic processes employing fluidized-bed reactors, 82 4.2 Key hydrodynamic features of gas-fluidized beds, 83 4.2.1 Minimum fluidization velocity, 83 4.2.2 Powder group and minimum bubbling velocity, 84 4.2.3 Flow regimes and transitions, 84 4.2.4 Bubbling fluidized beds, 84 4.2.5 Turbulent fluidization flow regime, 85 4.2.6 Fast fluidization and dense suspension upflow, 85 4.3 Key properties affecting reactor performance, 86 4.3.1 Particle mixing, 86 4.3.2 Gas mixing, 87 4.3.3 Heat transfer and temperature uniformity, 87 4.3.4 Mass transfer, 88 4.3.5 Entrainment, 88 4.3.6 Attrition, 89 4.3.7 Wear, 89 4.3.8 Agglomeration and fouling, 89 4.3.9 Electrostatics and other interparticle forces, 89 4.4 Reactor modeling, 89 4.4.1 Basis for reactor modeling, 89 4.4.2 Modeling of bubbling and slugging flow regimes, 90 4.4.3 Modeling of reactors operating in high-velocity flow regimes, 91 4.5 Scale-up, pilot testing, and practical issues, 91 4.5.1 Scale-up issues, 91 4.5.2 Laboratory and pilot testing, 91 4.5.3 Instrumentation, 92 4.5.4 Other practical issues, 92 4.6 Concluding remarks, 92 Nomenclature, 93 Greek letters, 93 References, 93 Part 3 Three-phase catalytic reactors 5 Three-phase fixed-bed reactors, 97 Ion Iliuta and Faical Larachi 5.1 Introduction, 97 5.2 Hydrodynamic aspects of three-phase fixed-bed reactors, 98 5.2.1 General aspects: Flow regimes, liquid holdup, two-phase pressure drop, and wetting efficiency, 98 5.2.2 Standard two-fluid models for two-phase downflow and upflow in three-phase fixed-bed reactors, 100 5.2.3 Nonequilibrium thermomechanical models for two-phase flow in three-phase fixed-bed reactors, 102 5.3 Mass and heat transfer in three-phase fixed-bed reactors, 104 5.3.1 Gas liquid mass transfer, 105 5.3.2 Liquid solid mass transfer, 105 5.3.3 Heat transfer, 106 5.4 Scale-up and scale-down of trickle-bed reactors, 108 5.4.1 Scaling up of trickle-bed reactors, 108 5.4.2 Scaling down of trickle-bed reactors, 109 5.4.3 Salient conclusions, 110 5.5 Trickle-bed reactor/bioreactor modeling, 110 5.5.1 Catalytic hydrodesulfurization and bed clogging in hydrotreating trickle-bed reactors, 110 5.5.2 Biomass accumulation and clogging in trickle-bed bioreactors for phenol biodegradation, 115 5.5.3 Integrated aqueous-phase glycerol reforming and dimethyl ether synthesis into an allothermal dual-bed reactor, 121 Nomenclature, 126 Greek letters, 127 Subscripts, 128 Superscripts, 128 Abbreviations, 128 References, 128 6 Three-phase slurry reactors, 132 Vivek V. Buwa, Shantanu Roy and Vivek V. Ranade 6.1 Introduction, 132 6.2 Reactor design, scale-up methodology, and reactor selection, 134 6.2.1 Practical aspects of reactor design and scale-up, 134 6.2.2 Transport effects at particle level, 139 6.3 Reactor models for design and scale-up, 143 6.3.1 Lower order models, 143 6.3.2 Tank-in-series/mixing cell models, 144 6.4 Estimation of transport and hydrodynamic parameters, 145 6.4.1 Estimation of transport parameters, 145 6.4.2 Estimation of hydrodynamic parameters, 146 6.5 Advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based models, 147 6.6 Summary and closing remarks, 149 Acknowledgments, 152 Nomenclature, 152 Greek letters, 153 Subscripts, 153 References, 153 7 Bioreactors, 156 Pedro Fernandes and Joaquim M.S. Cabral 7.1 Introduction, 156 7.2 Basic concepts, configurations, and modes of operation, 156 7.2.1 Basic concepts, 156 7.2.2 Reactor configurations and modes of operation, 157 7.3 Mass balances and reactor equations, 159 7.3.1 Operation with enzymes, 159 7.3.2 Operation with living cells, 160 7.4 Immobilized enzymes and cells, 164 7.4.1 Mass transfer effects, 164 7.4.2 Deactivation effects, 166 7.5 Aeration, 166 7.6 Mixing, 166 7.7 Heat transfer, 167 7.8 Scale-up, 167 7.9 Bioreactors for animal cell cultures, 167 7.10 Monitoring and control of bioreactors, 168 Nomenclature, 168 Greek letters, 169 Subscripts, 169 References, 169 Part 4 Structured reactors 8 Monolith reactors, 173 Joao P. Lopes and Alirio E. Rodrigues 8.1 Introduction, 173 8.1.1 Design concepts, 174 8.1.2 Applications, 178 8.2 Design of wall-coated monolith channels, 179 8.2.1 Flow in monolithic channels, 179 8.2.2 Mass transfer and wall reaction, 182 8.2.3 Reaction and diffusion in the catalytic washcoat, 190 8.2.4 Nonisothermal operation, 194 8.3 Mapping and evaluation of operating regimes, 197 8.3.1 Diversity in the operation of a monolith reactor, 197 8.3.2 Definition of operating regimes, 199 8.3.3 Operating diagrams for linear kinetics, 201 8.3.4 Influence of nonlinear reaction kinetics, 202 8.3.5 Performance evaluation, 203 8.4 Three-phase processes, 204 8.5 Conclusions, 207 Nomenclature, 207 Greek letters, 208 Superscripts, 208 Subscripts, 208 References, 209 9 Microreactors for catalytic reactions, 213 Evgeny Rebrov and Sourav Chatterjee 9.1 Introduction, 213 9.2 Single-phase catalytic microreactors, 213 9.2.1 Residence time distribution, 213 9.2.2 Effect of flow maldistribution, 214 9.2.3 Mass transfer, 215 9.2.4 Heat transfer, 215 9.3 Multiphase microreactors, 216 9.3.1 Microstructured packed beds, 216 9.3.2 Microchannel reactors, 218 9.4 Conclusions and outlook, 225 Nomenclature, 226 Greek letters, 227 Subscripts, 227 References, 228 Part 5 Essential tools of reactor modeling and design 10 Experimental methods for the determination of parameters, 233 Rebecca R. Fushimi, John T. Gleaves and Gregory S. Yablonsky 10.1 Introduction, 233 10.2 Consideration of kinetic objectives, 234 10.3 Criteria for collecting kinetic data, 234 10.4 Experimental methods, 234 10.4.1 Steady-state flow experiments, 235 10.4.2 Transient flow experiments, 237 10.4.3 Surface science experiments, 238 10.5 Microkinetic approach to kinetic analysis, 241 10.6 TAP approach to kinetic analysis, 241 10.6.1 TAP experiment design, 242 10.6.2 TAP experimental results, 244 10.7 Conclusions, 248 References, 249 11 Numerical solution techniques, 253 Ahmet Kerim Avci and Seda Keskin 11.1 Techniques for the numerical solution of ordinary differential equations, 253 11.1.1 Explicit techniques, 253 11.1.2 Implicit techniques, 254 11.2 Techniques for the numerical solution of partial differential equations, 255 11.3 Computational fluid dynamics techniques, 256 11.3.1 Methodology of computational fluid dynamics, 256 11.3.2 Finite element method, 256 11.3.3 Finite volume method, 258 11.4 Case studies, 259 11.4.1 Indirect partial oxidation of methane in a catalytic tubular reactor, 259 11.4.2 Hydrocarbon steam reforming in spatially segregated microchannel reactors, 261 11.5 Summary, 265 Nomenclature, 266 Greek letters, 267 Subscripts/superscripts, 267 References, 267 Part 6 Industrial applications of multiphase reactors 12 Reactor approaches for Fischer Tropsch synthesis, 271 Gary Jacobs and Burtron H. Davis 12.1 Introduction, 271 12.2 Reactors to 1950, 272 12.3 1950 1985 period, 274 12.4 1985 to present, 276 12.4.1 Fixed-bed reactors, 276 12.4.2 Fluidized-bed reactors, 280 12.4.3 Slurry bubble column reactors, 281 12.4.4 Structured packings, 286 12.4.5 Operation at supercritical conditions (SCF), 288 12.5 The future?, 288 References, 291 13 Hydrotreating of oil fractions, 295 Jorge Ancheyta, Anton Alvarez-Majmutov and Carolina Leyva 13.1 Introduction, 295 13.2 The HDT process, 296 13.2.1 Overview, 296 13.2.2 Role in petroleum refining, 297 13.2.3 World outlook and the situation of Mexico, 298 13.3 Fundamentals of HDT, 300 13.3.1 Chemistry, 300 13.3.2 Reaction kinetics, 303 13.3.3 Thermodynamics, 305 13.3.4 Catalysts, 306 13.4 Process aspects of HDT, 307 13.4.1 Process variables, 307 13.4.2 Reactors for hydroprocessing, 310 13.4.3 Catalyst activation in commercial hydrotreaters, 316 13.5 Reactor modeling and simulation, 317 13.5.1 Process description, 317 13.5.2 Summary of experiments, 317 13.5.3 Modeling approach, 319 13.5.4 Simulation of the bench-scale unit, 320 13.5.5 Scale-up of bench-unit data, 323 13.5.6 Simulation of the commercial unit, 324 Nomenclature, 326 Greek letters, 327 Subscripts, 327 Non-SI units, 327 References, 327 14 Catalytic reactors for fuel processing, 330 Gunther Kolb 14.1 Introduction The basic reactions of fuel processing, 330 14.2 Theoretical aspects, advantages, and drawbacks of fixed beds versus monoliths, microreactors, and membrane reactors, 331 14.3 Reactor design and fabrication, 332 14.3.1 Fixed-bed reactors, 332 14.3.2 Monolithic reactors, 332 14.3.3 Microreactors, 332 14.3.4 Membrane reactors, 333 14.4 Reformers, 333 14.4.1 Fixed-bed reformers, 336 14.4.2 Monolithic reformers, 337 14.4.3 Plate heat exchangers and microstructured reformers, 342 14.4.4 Membrane reformers, 344 14.5 Water-gas shift reactors, 348 14.5.1 Monolithic reactors, 348 14.5.2 Plate heat exchangers and microstructured water-gas shift reactors, 348 14.5.3 Water-gas shift in membrane reactors, 350 14.6 Carbon monoxide fine cleanup: Preferential oxidation and selective methanation, 350 14.6.1 Fixed-bed reactors, 352 14.6.2 Monolithic reactors, 352 14.6.3 Plate heat exchangers and microstructured reactors, 353 14.7 Examples of complete fuel processors, 355 14.7.1 Monolithic fuel processors, 355 14.7.2 Plate heat exchanger fuel processors on the meso- and microscale, 357 Nomenclature, 359 References, 359 15 Modeling of the catalytic deoxygenation of fatty acids in a packed bed reactor, 365 Teuvo Kilpio, Paivi Maki-Arvela, Tapio Salmi and Dmitry Yu. Murzin 15.1 Introduction, 365 15.2 Experimental data for stearic acid deoxygenation, 366 15.3 Assumptions, 366 15.4 Model equations, 367 15.5 Evaluation of the adsorption parameters, 368 15.6 Particle diffusion study, 369 15.7 Parameter sensitivity studies, 369 15.8 Parameter identification studies, 370 15.9 Studies concerning the deviation from ideal plug flow conditions, 371 15.10 Parameter estimation results, 372 15.11 Scale-up considerations, 372 15.12 Conclusions, 375 Acknowledgments, 375 Nomenclature, 375 Greek letters, 375 References, 376 Index, 377