Mohammad Reza Rahimpour - Chemical Engineering Department, Engineering School, Shiraz University, Iran
Abdolhossein Jahanmiri - Chemical Engineering Department, Engineering School, Shiraz University, Iran
Nima Rezaie - Chemical Engineering Department, Engineering School, Shiraz University, Iran

The operation of methanol reactor with mixtures of fresh and partially deactivated catalyst was studied using a dynamic reactor simulator. The sharp decay of fresh catalyst at intial times and its slower deacay as time goes on, are the reasons for catalyst recycling. In this way, the partially deactivated catalyst maintain an activity level that enables it to be used in the mixtures with fresh catalyst. The results of model shows that there is no substantial drop of cumulative production rates when the mixtures of fresh and partially deactivated catalyst are used instead of fresh catalyst. Two different strategies for mixing of fresh and partially deactivated catalyst are proposed and the performance of the reactor has been investigated. In the first strategy the fresh and partially deactivated catalyst are mixed in segregated layers while in the second strategy they are mixed homogeniously. The comparison of two strategies shows that the homogeneous manner of mixing gives substatial improvement in production rate and temperature profile along the reactor. Both strategies are carried out in different amounts of recycling ratios and the simulation results are compared.

Modeling; Catalyst; Recycling; Methanol; Deactivation