OPTIMIZATION OF BUBBLE-COLUMN SLURRY REACTORS VIA NATURAL DELAYED-FEED ADDITION

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to present a simple optimization procedure for maximizing the productivity of bubble-column slurry reactors for reactions with maximal-rate kinetics. The reactor performance is simulated using a two-phase cell model. The notion of natural delayed-feed addition of the gaseous reactant to the slurry is introduced and exploited in a dynamic-programming formulation. This approach allows us to dramatically reduce the problem size and thus to analytically solve for the criteria of the optimal policy of the reactor. Since the gaseous feed is added to the slurry phase along the length of the column and its rate of addition is controllable, near optimum operation can be achieved. The validity of the approach is demonstrated for phenyl acetylene hydrogenation to styrene.

[1]  R. Bellman.  Dynamic programming. , 1957, Science.

[2]  Rutherford Aris,et al.  The Optimal Design Of Chemical Reactors , 1961 .

[3]  M. Peters,et al.  Reactant dynamics in catalytic fluidized bed reactors with flow reversal of gas in the emulsion phaset , 1982 .

[4]  S. Narayanan,et al.  Suspension of solids by bubble agitation , 1969 .

[5]  H. Inoue,et al.  GAS HOLDUP IN BUBBLE COLUMNS , 1975 .

[6]  H. Kikukawa,et al.  Liquid-phase mixing in bubble columns: Effect of liquid properties , 1974 .

[7]  Raghunath V. Chaudhari,et al.  Three Phase Catalytic Reactors , 1982 .

[8]  D. Guha,et al.  Suspension of solids in a bubbling liquid: Critical gas flow rates for complete suspension , 1964 .

[9]  J. M. Begovich,et al.  Hydrodynamic characteristics of three-phase fluidized beds , 1978 .

[10]  K. Kato,et al.  Bubble assemblage model for fluidized bed catalytic reactors , 1969 .

[11]  Yatish T. Shah,et al.  Design parameters estimations for bubble column reactors , 1982 .

[12]  Kiyomi Akita,et al.  Gas Holdup and Volumetric Mass Transfer Coefficient in Bubble Columns. Effects of Liquid Properties , 1973 .

[13]  R. Jackson,et al.  The optimization of chemical reactors by the delayed addition of reactant , 1968 .

[14]  J. Joshi,et al.  Modelling of Three Phase Sparged Catalytic Reactors , 1988 .

[15]  Th.N. Zwietering.  The degree of mixing in continuous flow systems , 1959 .

[16]  W. V. Swaaij,et al.  Slurry Reactors, Fundamentals and Applications , 1986 .

[17]  S. Asai,et al.  Gas hold-up in bubble columns , 1980 .

[18]  S. Mochizuki,et al.  Selective hydrogenation and mass transfer in a fixed‐bed catalytic reactor with gas‐liquid concurrent upflow , 1976 .

[19]  Kiyomi Akita,et al.  Bubble Size, Interfacial Area, and Liquid-Phase Mass Transfer Coefficient in Bubble Columns , 1974 .

[20]  L. Doraiswamy,et al.  Heterogeneous reactions: Analysis examples and reactor design. Vol. 1: Gas solid and solid-solid reactions , 1984 .

[21]  O. Lev,et al.  Optimal feed distribution in reactions with maximal rate , 1986 .