Trickle – Bed reactor simulation using a process simulator

Issue title: II Congress of Theoretical and Computational Physical Chemistry, Choroni, Venezuela, 2008

Guest editors: H. Soscunxy, F. Ruettez and A. Sierraltaz

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Verruschi, E.^{a; b; *} | Freitez, J.^{a; b} | Gonzalez, Y.^{a; b} | Dassori, C.G.^b

Affiliations: [a] UNEXPO: Universidad Nacional Experimental Politécnica Antonio José de Sucre, Vice-Rectorado de Barquisimeto, Venezuela | [b] CENIPRO: Centro de Investigaciones de Procesos de la UNEXPO, Venezuela | [x] Centro Nacional de Tecnologia Quimica CNTQ, Complejo Tecnologico Simon Rodriguez CTSR, La Carlota, Caracas, Venezuela | [y] Departamento de Quimica, Facultad Experimental de Ciencias, La Universidad del Zulia LUZ, Maracaibo, Venezuela | [z] Centro de Quimica, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas IVIC, Caracas, Venezuela

Correspondence: [*] Corresoponding author. E-mail: everruschi@unexpo.edu.ve.

Abstract: The present study deals with a multiple reaction system in both gas and liquid phases considering the effect of gas-liquid mass transfer limitations in a trickle-bed reactor where the catalytic hydrotreating of gas oil reaction is being carried out. The hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and hydrogenation (HYD) of aromatics reactions over NiMo and CoMo catalysts are taken into account in the model. The reactor model was codified as a user-added unit operation in PROvision process simulator (V 5,0), in FORTRAN language. This model is used to predict reactant conversion and product distribution as a function of inlet condition. The differential equations are solved by the LSODE program. The PROvision process simulator provides the database for physical and thermodynamics properties of the components through appropriate liquid-vapor equilibrium models.

Keywords: Trickle – bed reactor, hydrogenation, user-added unit operation, reactor model

DOI: 10.3233/JCM-2009-0293

Journal: Journal of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, vol. 9, no. 4-6, pp. 175-195, 2009