Tubular reactor internals for suppressing hot spot formation applied to the Fischer-Tropsch reaction

A tubular reactor internals was proposed in order to suppress hot spot formation in catalyst bed. The reactor internals was designed to adjust the effective inner diameter in the front region of the catalyst bed where the hot spot was most likely to be formed. A bench-scale CFD reactor model with a 50 mm diameter and 1000 mm height was employed to verify the performance of the reactor internals under Fischer-Tropsch reaction conditions and to optimize its key parameters: neck diameter and frustum cavity height. The simulation results for the optimized reactor internals showed that the maximum temperature rise decreased by as much as 22.6 % while the change in the rate of CO conversion was less than 2.13 % and the C3+ product selectivity increased slightly. Moreover, the mechanism whereby the internals inhibiting the hot spot was discussed from the aspects of the heat transfer and the dispersion of reaction heat intensity.

Automated summary

A tubular reactor internals were designed and tested to suppress hot spot formation in a catalyst bed, with simulation showing a reduction in maximum temperature rise by as much as 22.6% and a slight increase in C3+ product selectivity. The optimized internals demonstrate effective heat transfer and dispersion of reaction heat intensity.