Multiphase Reaction Engineering (MuRE -- CH3061)

Assignment 4: Monolith reactors

Deadline for handing in: Monday March 20th 2017, 09:00 h
Single-phase monolith reactors - RTD

For this assignment, you will be designing a reactor for home use: a deep frying pan.
Most frying pans have the problem that odorous vapours come out of the pan. Some
frying pans have filters to catch those odours. An alternative is to use a catalyst.

a. Why would you consider a catalyst if a filter works?

As a catalyst, you need something that is able to burn of the hot fatty vapours that
pass through a catalyst bed. For this assignment, you may assume that an infinitely
fast catalyst is available.

b. Why is a monolith an excellent catalyst shape for this application?

c. Calculate the conversion in a 1.2 mm diameter monolith channel of 2.5 cm long,

assuming plug flow of 4 cm/s, and using the following Graetz equation

1
Sh = max 3.66 ; 1.615 [Gz ] 3 (1.1)

where Gz=L/(d ReSc).The relevant fluid properties are D=110-7 m2/s,
=1.2 kg/m3, =1.810-5 Pas.

In a real system, the velocity will never be the same for all the channels. Velocity
measurements have shown that the maldistribution of velocity may be described by a
linear radial profile u(r)=0.06-0.05(r/R), where R is the monolith radius.

d. Calculate the conversion for this maldistributed system. (Hint: you can do this
numerically in excel). What is the error you make by ignoring maldistribution?
Note that the average velocity is not the same as in the previous assignment, to
make a fair comparison calculate the correct average velocity.

Multiphase monolith reactors - RTD

The focus of this assignment is residence time distribution in multiphase systems.

There are no calculations required in this assignment, so you should be able to do it

relatively quick. It does require you to look at the literature a little bit. Some articles
are placed on blackboard. For sure, take a look at the review by Dudukovic (2002).
But you are free to look at Web of Science for other articles.

We begin by asking ourselves why RTD in multiphase flow in different from single-
phase flow.
e. In single-phase flow, one has several checks to see if an E-curve is correctly
obtained experimentally. Indicate whether one can use these checks for E-curves
in multiphase systems as well.
f. Can one determine hold-up from RTD experiments? Indicate how.
g. For which of the above reactors would you consider determining gas or liquid
hold-up from RTD?

Usually, it is very difficult to determine a tracer concentration in one phase, while the
other phase is still present. As a result, one usually has to perform phase separation
before measuring the exit concentration. The process of removing the contribution of
a separator from the outlet pulse is very difficult mathematically (deconvolution).

h. Describe how you would estimate the contribution of a separator without doing a
full deconvolution, but just looking at the moments of RTD curves.