Modeling Packed Bed Fischer-Tropsch Reactors with Phase Evolution

Author： Magoo Arun K. Mittal Akash Roy Shantanu

ISSN： 0019-4506

Source： Indian Chemical Engineer, Vol.55, Iss.1, 2013-03, pp. : 29-37

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Abstract

The focus of this paper is to model a three-phase packed bed reactor where a phase is evolving as a result of reaction, such as in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. In such systems, there is a strong two-way coupling between the hydrodynamics and the overall reaction kinetics. The hydrodynamics is affected by the amount of phase evolution and the amount of phase evolution in turn determines the local transport resistances, which in turn determine the local net rates of reaction. A reactor scale model incorporating species balance equation for the species in the gas and liquid phases, an overall energy balance and a pellet scale model accounting for partial wetting were used to complete the theoretical picture of the system. In the absence of local knowledge of transport effects, global correlations were used “locally to predict the local hydrodynamics in the reactor.