Analysis of a nonisothermal simulated moving‐bed reactor

Abstract

Simulated moving-bed reactor (SMBR) is a multifunctional reactor wherein in situ separation of the products facilitates the reversible reaction to completion beyond thermodynamic equilibrium and at the same time obtaining products of high purity. In this work, we investigate the feasibility of introducing variances in adsorption strength, which has recently been proven to effectively improve SMB performance for pure separation, into an SMB system to include reactions. Synthesis of methyl acetate catalyzed by amberlyst 15 is considered as model system. Numerical simulations were carried out for an SMBR unit consisting of four columns and operated with various temperature distributions in the range of 308-323 K. SMBR productivities were evaluated and compared under the constraints of complete conversion and complete product separation. The effects of kinetics, heat transfer efficiency and adsorption strength of reactant were systematically investigated.

Multi-Objective Optimizations of Non-Isothermal Simulated Moving Bed Reactor: Parametric Analyses

“…Mathematical model to describe non-isothermal 4-zone SMBR and numerical schemes used in this study were developed and described in detail in our previous study [31,32]. Some of the model parameters used in the model were experimentally measured by Yu et al [36].…”

“…. In our previous publications [31,32], the conventional equilibrium-dispersion (ED) model had been extended to account for the catalytic reaction. Due to the simplification of negligible radial gradients and instantaneous adsorption equilibrium, the reactor model is 1-dimensional.…”

“…Effects of non-isothermal operation on a 4-zone SMBR for the synthesis of methyl acetate catalyzed by Amberlyst15 have been investigated under optimal conditions in our previous studies [31,32]. In the first non-isothermal article [31], extensively used "Equilibrium Theory" [33,34] for the design of SMB separation processes followed by "restrictive optimization" [35] was applied to maximize the unit throughput for practically complete conversion and complete separation. Moreover, maximum flowrate was assigned to Zone I and flowrate ratios (typically expressed as m-values) in Zones I and IV were conservatively fixed (see Figure 1).…”

“…Optimal operating conditions for various optimization problems were identified in the parametric space consisting of all mvalues. Since methanol, one of the reactants, is used as the mobile phase and in large excess, methyl acetate synthesis in our studies [31,32] falls in the catalogue of…”

Catalytic propane dehydrogenation: Advanced strategies for the analysis and design of moving bed reactors

“…Beyond propane or isobutane dehydrogenation process, an MBR has been studied for many different types of processes, including methanol to propylene, methane steam reforming, coal gasification, thermal cracking, esterification, and glucose and fructose production [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”