Dynamic modeling and simulations of the behavior of a fixed-bed reactor-exchanger used for CO2 methanation

A multidimensional heterogeneous and dynamic model of a fixed-bed heat exchanger reactor used for CO2 methanation has been developed in this work that is based on mass, energy and momentum balances in the gas phase and mass and energy balances for the catalyst phase. The dynamic behavior of this reactor is simulated for transient variations in inlet gas temperature, cooling temperature, gas inlet flow rate, and outlet pressure. Simulation results showed that wrong-way behaviors can occur for any abrupt temperature changes. Conversely, temperature ramp changes enable to attenuate and even fade the wrong-way behavior. Traveling hot spots appear only when the change of an operating condition shifts the reactor from an ignited steady state to a non-ignited one. Inlet gas flow rate variations reveal overshoots and undershoots of the reactor maximum temperature. (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 468-480, 2018