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Dynamics of packed‐bed reactors loaded with oxide catalysts
Author(s) -
Arnold Ernest W.,
Sundaresan Sankaran
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.690350506
Subject(s) - catalysis , packed bed , oxygen , volumetric flow rate , chemical engineering , oxide , chemistry , oxygen storage , steady state (chemistry) , materials science , thermodynamics , chromatography , organic chemistry , physics , engineering
The lattice of an oxide catalyst can act as a reservoir for oxygen, storing and releasing it for oxidation reactions at the catalyst surface under appropriate transient conditions. The implication of this oxygen storage property on the dynamic response characteristics of packed‐bed reactors loaded with oxide catalysts has been investigated through an experimental study of 2‐butene oxidation over vanadium oxide. Temperature profiles in a wall‐cooled packed‐bed reactor have been measured at steady state and following step changes in the feed butene concentration and in the feed gas flow rate. Thermal reactor runaway was observed experimentally for large step increases in the feed butene concentration following certain catalyst pretreatments. Gas flow rate step increases and less severe butene step increases resulted in the reactor temperature overshooting its final steady‐state profile. These response characteristics are a direct consequence of the oxygen storage property of the vandaium oxide catalyst.