Modeling of adsorber/desorber/catalytic reactor system for ethylene oxide removal

Abstract

The removal of ethylene oxide (EtO) in a combined system adsorber/desorber/catalytic reactor has been investigated. The combined system was a modified draft tube spouted bed reactor loaded with Pt/Al 2O3 catalyst. The annular region was divided into two sectons, the "hot" section contained about 7% of catalyst and it behaved as a desorber and catalytic incinerator, while the "cold" section, with the rest of the catalyst, behaved as a sorber. The catalyst particles were circulated between the two sections by use of a draft tube riser. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program package FLUENT was used for simulations of the operation of the combined system. In addition, a one-dimensional numerical model for the operation of the packed bed reactor was compared with the corresponding FLUENT calculations. The results of the FLUENT simulations are in very good agreement with the experimental observations, as well as with the results of the one-dimensional numerical simulations.