Modeling and optimization for industrial adipic acid synthesis reactors

Abstract

Via coupling the mass balance, energy balance, and power law kinetic equations, a tanks‐in‐series reactor model is established to describe the performance of the industrial in‐series stirred‐tank oxidation reactors for adipic acid (AA) synthesis. Industrial‐scale experiments are carried out for model verification, and the satisfactory agreement between the experimental results and calculated data indicates the validity of model for the investigation of the reactor behaviors. First, single tank research is taken, and the results illustrate that the most sensitive parameter in the single reactor is the coolant temperature. Second, the five in‐series stirred‐tank reactors are selected according to the calculated intermediates conversion over the total tank number from 1 to 5. The optimal ketone–alcohol (K/A) oil feed distribution is found to be 1.7, 1.4, 1.1, 0.6, and 0.4 t/h. The corresponding reaction temperature distribution is 343.15, 346.15, 349.15, 351.15, and 353.15 K. The average residence time distribution is found to be 7.02, 6.61, 6.37, 5.80, and 5.63 min. The total yield of AA could reach up to 97.30% under the optimal conditions.

Computational fluid dynamics modeling and mass transfer study of an in situ gas production process

“…are generated during this oxidation process according to references. [36][37][38] To simplify the simulation process, the generation of all other gas species are neglected, only nitrous oxide is taken into consideration. The chemical reaction is represented by:…”

“…Various gas products (e.g., NO, NO 2 , N 2 O, etc.) are generated during this oxidation process according to references 36–38 . To simplify the simulation process, the generation of all other gas species are neglected, only nitrous oxide is taken into consideration.…”