NOVEL-SHAPED CATALYST PELLETS FOR PACKED BED REACTORS

The effect of the shape of a catalyst pellet, on the performance of a packed bed reactor, is determined by evaluating the effectiveness factor and dimensionless overall rates of the catalyst pellet. Depending upon the values of Thiele modulus and Prater number the use of Novel-shaped catalyst pellets, such as Lessing ring type pellets or partition ring type pellets or spoked wheel type pellets, which improve the overall rate of the pellet, were suggested. The novel-shaped pellets were sectioned into a hollow cylinder and slabs. The dimensionless rates and effectiveness factors were determined for hollow cylinders and slabs separately and the total dimensionless overall rate for the pellet is obtained by adding, the individual rates for slabs and hollow cylinder.; The catalyst shape effects were studied on the steam-methane reformer. It was found that using traditional catalyst, a hollow cylindrical pellet with R{dollar}sb{lcub}rm i{rcub}{dollar}/R{dollar}sb{lcub}rm p{rcub}{dollar} ratio of 0.39, the dimensionless overall rate decreased from 0.75 at the top, to 0.27 at the bottom of the reformer. Upon using Lessing rings at the top, partition rings at the center, and spoked wheel pellets at the bottom of the reformer, the reaction rate can be improved to 0.9 at the top and to 0.73 at the bottom of the reformer. Though benzene-hydrogenation is exothermic reaction, use of solid cylindrical pellet was suggested, because of the low Thiele modulus.; Two-dimensional pseudo homogeneous and heterogeneous reactor models were solved for a first order nonisothermal reaction, considering isothermal pellets. The inclusion of nonisothermal effectiveness factor that consider shape effects was left for future work.