Modeling and Simulation of Partial Oxidation of Methanol to Formaldehyde on FeO/MoO۳ Catalyst in a Catalytic Fixed Bed Reactor

A two-dimensional mathematical model was developed for a porous heterogeneous catalytic fixed bed reactor. The model took into account the effect of heat generated by adsorption of reactants on the catalyst surface and heat transfer from the fluid phase to the surroundings which have a significant effect on reactor performance, especially at reactor hotspot. The developed model predicted the partial oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde on FeO/MoO۳ catalyst, a complex reaction system. Excellent agreement was achieved when the resultant simulated results were compared with experimental data in the literature. The proposed model predicted the location of the hotspot at a dimensionless distance of ۰.۴۴۱۳ (= ۰.۰۳۰۹ m) the same as the experiment value but with a temperature of ۶۱۹ K compared with an experimental value of ۶۲۲ K. The conventional heterogeneous and pseudo-homogeneous models predicted the hotspot temperature to be about ۸ K and ۳۴ K lower than the experimental value respectively.

کلیدواژه ها:

heterogeneous ، Pseudo-homogeneous ، Non-isothermal ، Orthogonal collocation ، Hotspot