Packed Bed Reactor Design for a Gas Phase Catalytic Reaction

Consider an irreversible gas phase catalytic reaction, , taking place in a packed bed reactor with four different catalysts. The catalyst weight is 2 kg. Reactant inlet concentrations are . The molar feed flow rate of species is equal to . The reaction rate constant is . The reaction rate expression for the different catalyst types takes one of the following expressions:

A differential mole balance gives: , where is the catalyst weight, is the conversion given by , and is the user-selected rate expression, which depends on catalyst type.

This Demonstration plots the conversion of species versus catalyst weight for constant pressure operation for the four situations. The user can set the values of the adsorption equilibrium constants , , and , which are expressed in .