Packed bed reactor

A gas phase reaction is carried out in a packed bed containing a catalyst, under isothermal
conditions. The reaction kinetics are given in terms of the catalyst mass rA'  k 'CA where rA' is
the rate in terms of moles of A produced per unit mass of catalyst per unit time, and k’ is the rate
m3
constant expressed in .
s  kg cat

Particle diameter is 1 mm, void fraction is 25%, the density of catalyst is 1500 kg/m3. Diameter
of the column is 20 cm. Pressure at inlet is 10 atm. Volumetric flow rate at the inlet is 10 lit/s.
Total molar flow rate at the inlet is 4 mol/s and 20% of feed is A. The reaction is A --> 3B
(epsilon is 0.4), and the gas viscosity is 10 Pa-s. Gas density at the inlet is 15.6 kg/m3. The rate
constant is 0.001 m3/kg catalyst/s.

dFA
The packed bed design equation is written as  rA' .
dW

The pressure drop is given by

dP

G  1   1     1.75G  , where G is the superficial mass velocity = V .
 3  150  sup
dZ  Dp     Dp 

 Qin
Under steady state conditions, we can write  .
in Q

P Tin FTin
Using ideal gas law, we can write   in
Pin TFT

For a simple reaction FT  FTin 1   x 

Under isothermal conditions, Tin  T

The mass of the catalyst is related to the void fraction  and catalyst density z as follows

W  1    Az  z  Z

dP

1 G  1   1     1.75G 
Therefore,  3  150 
dW 1    AZ Z  Dp     Dp 

dP

1 G  1   1     1.75G  P 1   x 
  in
1    AZ Z in Dp   3  
150
dW Dp  P
dFA dx F 1  x 
 rA' means FAin  k 'C A  k ' Ain
dW dW Q

Then
dx
 k'
1  x   k ' 1  x  P
dW Q PinQin 1   x 

We have to solve the pressure and conversion equations together.