Optimal Distribution of Catalyst and Adsorbent in an Adsorptive Reactor at the Reactor Level

The concept of adsorptive reactors has attracted considerable attention as a hybrid process to enhance reaction selectivity and conversion for heterogeneously catalyzed gas-phase reactions. The performance of adsorptive reactors may be enhanced by the nonuniform distribution of catalyst and adsorbent particles within the reactor and general guidelines for determining a suitable distribution are provided in this article. Simulation and optimization studies have been carried out using Claus process and its parametric variants as test cases. The study indicates the conditions under which a nonuniform distribution of catalyst and adsorbent is favorable for adsorptive reactor performance. It also shows that a nonuniform distribution is not always essential for the optimal adsorptive reactor performance and that under certain conditions a simple homogeneous distribution may well suffice.