Chemical Engineering Science, Vol.54, No.21, 5021-5029, 1999
The boiling slurry reactor: Axial dispersion model
We use a mathematical model that accounts for axial dispersion in both the gas and liquid phases to study the dynamics of a special configuration of a boiling slurry reactor (BSR). It is fed by a nonvolatile liquid reactant, a solvent, and a gaseous reactant and its effluent consists only of a gas. The proposed BSR configuration offers two important advantages over conventional slurry reactors, i.e., complete conversion of the liquid reactant and no need for expensive solid-liquid separation. Additionally, internal cooling devices are not needed since the reactor is cooled by evaporation of the solvent and the liquid products. The results generated by the dispersion model are compared with those of a well-mixed CSTR model. High dispersion - typical of a large diameter commercial scale reactor operating at high superficial gas velocity -leads to a reactor behavior similar to a well-mixed CSTR. Reduced backmixing does not change the qualitative reactor behavior dramatically, although temperature and concentration gradients increase, as expected. At low feed temperatures and very low axial dispersion no steady-stale is reached since the reaction does not ignite at the bottom of the column. An increase of the feed temperature will stabilize the operation. A unique feature of this BSR is the possible existence of fill-up and dry-up states at which the reactor volume changes monotonically while the other stale variables remain unchanged. The fill-up slate will lead to spillover unless the feed and/or initial conditions are properly adjusted.
Keywords:BUBBLE