A Numerical Study of Multicomponent Mass Diffusion and Convection in Porous Pellets for Methanol Production

Keywords: Wilke Model, Maxwell-Stefan Model, Dusty gas Model, Least Square Spectral Method (LSQ) The paper presents the multicomponent mass diffusion and convection in methanol catalyst particle for wilke model, maxwell-stefan model and dusty gas model in fixed bed reactor. Mass base governing equations has been solved using Least square spectral method (LSQ). The validation using the results from Graaf et al. (1990) for dusty gas model shows that the model can well predict the acuracy of diffusion model. Fig. 1. Concentration profiles from the center to the surface of the catalyst particle. T=547.8 K, P=100 bar, dp=4.2mm. Bulk gas composition: yCO=0.3125; yCO2=0.0625; yH2=0.6250 References Graaf, G. H., Scholtens, H., Stamhuis, E. J., & Beenackers, A.A.C.M.(1990) Intra-particle diffusion limitations in the low pressure methanol synthesis. Chemical Enghineering Science, 45,773-783. Graaf, G. H., Stamhuis, E. J., & Beenackers, A.A.C.M. (1990). Kinetics of the low pressure methanol synthesis Chemical Enghineering Science, 43, 3185-3195. Jakobsen, H. A. Chemical Reactor Modelling: Multiphase Reactive flows, Springer, 2008