Kinetics and design of distillation reactor with ZSM-5@SiC foam
catalytic packing for EL synthesis in industrial scale
Abstract
Distillation reactor is one of the important equipment to improve the
reaction conversion limited by the chemical equilibrium, however, the
design of distillation reactor in industrial scale is still challenging
due to the lack of efficient catalytic packing with corresponding
kinetics. This work developed the novel catalytic packing consists of
the structured ZSM-5@SiC foam catalyst and corrugated sheet, which used
in distillation reactor for synthesis of ethyl levulinate (EL). The
kinetic of structured ZSM-5@SiC foam catalyst was measured and model
regarding the “structure factor” of ZSM-5@SiC catalyst and fluid flow
conditions. Furthermore, the design of distillation reactor in
industrial scale has been performed based on the developed kinetics,
which demonstrated an excellent performance in the designed distillation
reactor (EL yield 37.65% with energy consumption 3695 kJ/kg) are
achieved. X-ray CT characterization revealed that the ZSM-5 coating
thickness has the significantly effects on the kinetics and performances
of distillation reactor.