Bed structure and its impact on liquid distribution in a trickle bed reactor

The work reported in this investigation involves the determination of the hydrodynamic properties of the Trickle Bed Reactor which has been loaded in various ways to mark the effect of the loading methodologies employed to pack the catalyst pellets. The bed structure of a packed three-phase reactor is critical to study as it provides the essential contact between the phases and provides the catalytic sites where the reaction takes place. Depending on the structural properties of the bed such as local void structure, liquid distribution, two-phase pressure drop, and holdup of fluids gets affected. The study aims to envelop the catalyst bed characteristics such as the local void structure, the length of the catalyst bed, flow characteristics such as liquid and gas flow rate, and liquid distributor at the top of the catalyst bed to gauge and quantify their effect on the hydrodynamics of a trickle bed reactor.

Hydroxyapatite supported molybdenum oxide catalyst for selective oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde: studies of industrial sized catalyst pellets

Promising alternative catalysts for the Formox process as industrial sized pellets and the influence of pellet density on catalyst performance.

Enhancement of the Direct Synthesis of Dimethyl Ether (DME) from Synthesis Gas by Macro- and Microstructuring of the Catalytic Bed

This work reports on a modelling study of the influence of the distribution of metallic and acidic active centers within a catalytic fixed-bed reactor for the direct synthesis of dimethyl ether (DME), conducted to demonstrate the potential of reactor-level and pellet-level structuring of catalytic active centers in process integration and intensification. To account for the pellet structure, the analysis was performed with the aid of a heterogeneous model considering both interphase and intrapellet mass transport resistances. The study evaluated, in terms of DME and methanol yield and selectivity, the performance of a tubular reactor loaded with a physical mixture of monofunctional catalyst pellets or structured bifunctional catalyst pellets with different arrangements of the catalytic centers. It was confirmed that bifunctional catalysts overperform significantly a physical mixture of monofunctional particles. Moreover, it was shown that the internal structure of a bifunctional catalyst pellet is an important feature that deserves to be exploited deeper, in view of further intensification of the DME synthesis process to be achieved with a better reactor design.