Dynamic modelling of multitubular catalytic reactors

Abstract

This paper presents a study on modelling and simulation of transient operational characteristics in multitubular fixed-bed reactors. The dynamic model of the reactor is based on a porous body approach which regards the intertubular space as a pseudo-homogeneous environment. Such an approach permits to take into account most factors in the geometrical design of the unit and thus to study the influence of various shell-side geometrical and operational parameters on the reactor behaviour. Based on the model, the dynamic responses of the two most common industrial reactor designs, i.e. the parallel flow unit with distributing plates and the crossflow reactor with disk-and-doughnut baffles have been investigated and compared. In addition, some problems of correct space discretization and use of time-dependent regridding procedures, are discussed.