(90b) Model-Based Design and Intensification of a Catalytic Fluidized Bed Membrane Reactor for Oxidative Coupling of Methane
AIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety
2022
2022 Spring Meeting and 18th Global Congress on Process Safety Proceedings
Topical C: Process Intensification
Modeling and Simulation of Intensified Processes
Tuesday, April 12, 2022 - 10:45am to 11:15am
The aim of this work is to present an optimal OCM process at commercial scale leveraging the concept of modular process intensification. An intensified fluidized bed membrane reactor (FBMR) catalyzed by La2O3/CaO has been investigated, and its performance is compared to a conventional fluidized bed reactor (FBR). Although the utilization of membrane for oxygen feed distribution adds to the capital cost investment and scaling up challenges, it has been reported to result in better ethylene yield and selectivity by selectively enhancing the desired reactions. To systematically identify the optimal design solution, high fidelity FBMR and FBR models are developed in gPROMS ModelBuilder, incorporating the partial differential algebraic equations accounting for mass balances, hydrodynamics, catalyst solid distribution, etc. A micro-kinetic model (with more than 350 elementary reactions) (Dooley et al., 2011) and a 10-step reduced kinetic model (Cruellas et al., 2020) are compared to study the impact of kinetics on reactor modeling and design . The two reactor configurations are optimized to obtain maximum profit, taking into account the design parameters on reactor sizing, temperature, catalyst particle velocity, and membrane tube design (for FBMR). Extensions of the reactor models with operational optimization following the PARametric Optimization and Control (PAROC) framework will also be discussed (Pistikopoulos et al., 2015).
References
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