Modeling of adiabatic moving-bed reactor for dehydrogenation of isobutane to isobutene Original Research Article

The dehydrogenation of isobutane to isobutene in adiabatic radial-flow moving-bed reactors was studied. First order rate expressions were considered for the primary reaction and deactivation kinetics incorporating the reversibility of dehydrogenation reaction. Kinetic data from a fixed-bed lab-scale reactor were used for modeling of the commercial size moving-bed reactor. The model was solved numerically by dividing the reactor into differential isothermal moving-bed reactors. The conversion of isobutane to isobutene was found to be equilibrium limited in commercial-sized reactors. The model predicted the trends of conversion, temperature, and catalyst activity with conversion levels somewhat lower than observed values which was attributed to the side-reactions.