(143a) A Breakthrough Reactor Technology to Improve Process Efficiency, Reduce Energy Consumption, and Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Hot spot temperatures are universally formed in many gas phase, heterogeneously catalyzed exothermic processes employing fixed-bed reactors. They are a major culprit for underperformance of these processes and include reduced catalyst performance, accelerated catalyst aging, limited catalyst and reactor train productivity, and elevated occurrence of reactor runaway and instability. Although a number of innovative techniques have been developed and are being practiced commercially to manage and control the extent of hot spots in industrial processes, none have been entirely successful in effectively eliminating their formation. As a result, the full potential of these processes is not realized due to the limitations imposed by hot spot consideration. A novel reactor technology (Thermally Balanced Reactor, TBR) has been developed to circumvent the above limitations of tubular fixed-bed reactors. Pilot plant and commercial scale test results employing the TBR configuration are presented for the highly exothermic n-butane-to-maleic anhydride oxidation process. In both sets of tests, it is observed that isothermal operation can be achieved, thus avoiding the formation of hot spots throughout the catalyst bed. This is illustrated by the diagram below which compares the catalyst bed temperature profiles obtained in TBR reactor with the conventional reactor in commercial-sized tubular reactor. The above observations are uniquely accomplished by balancing and fine-tuning the localized heat generation and removal rates within the catalyst bed. As expected, all the key economic measures of catalyst and reactor performance (conversion, selectivity, yield, productivity, etc.) are observed to be greatly improved when compared with the conventional reactors. Furthermore, the technology results in major environmental benefits including less consumption of raw materials, large reduction of by-product CO2 formation, and significant lowering of energy utilization. Finally, the test results demonstrate that this technology is readily scaleable. The TBR technology promises to have many potential applications in the chemical end energy conversion processes including both exothermic and endothermic operations.