Modeling the Partial Oxidation of o-Xylene in an Industrial Packed-Bed Catalytic Reactor: The Role of Hydrodynamics and Catalyst Activity in the Heat Transport

In this work, the role of hydrodynamics in an industrial-scale packed-bed catalytic reactor with a low tube/particle diameter ratio (d(iota)/d(p) similar to 3) and the role of redox dynamics of the catalyst surface together with the use of a catalyst activity profile are assessed on the heat transport during the partial oxidation of o-xylene on a V2O5/TiO2 catalyst. Temperature and concentration observations at different steady-state conditions are used to test the modeling approach, and reasonably good predictions are obtained when (1) the information contained in the heat-transport parameters, estimated from a boundary layer approximation to the hydrodynamics in the absence of chemical reactions [Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2007, 46 (23), 7426-7435], is used in the reactor model and (2) the redox catalyst dynamics, included in the reaction kinetics, is used, together with an empirical catalyst activity profile.