Effect of flow maldistribution on conversion and selectivity in radial flow fixed‐bed reactors

This paper examines the effect of flow maldistribution on the predicted conversion and selectivity in a radial flow fixed-bed reactor. A simple model was developed to relate gas maldistribution to the catalyst bed to the conversion with first- and second-order reactions and to selectivity for first-order reactions in series and parallel. For the cases considered, the conversion debit due to maldistribution of the gas phase was as much as 11%. The model was extended to cover adiabatic conditions for simple first-order reactions. For an exothermic reaction, maldistributions can enhance conversion over that obtained with a uniformly distributed gas phase.