Green process of fuel production under porous y-Al2O3 catalyst: Study of activation and deactivation kinetic for MTD process

Abstract

One of the methods of industrial dimethyl ether production is the catalytic dehydration of methanol. In this research work, methanol dehydration reactor has been modeled using continuous model and its results have been compared with experimental works and Voronoi pore network model. A 1D heterogeneous dispersed plug flow model was utilized to model an adiabatic fixed-bed reactor for the catalytic dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether. The mass and heat transfer equations are numerically solved for the reactor. The concentration of the reactant and products and also the temperature varies along the reactor, therefore the effectiveness factor would also change in the reactor. We used the the effectiveness factor that was simulated according to the diffusion and reaction in the catalyst pellet as a Voronoi pore network model. Sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the influence of T, P and weight hourly space velocity on performance of the chemical reactor. Acceptable agreement was reached between the measured and the model data. The results showed that the maximum reaction conversion was obtained about 90 % at WHSV = 10 h−1 and T = 560 K, while the inlet temperature (Tinlet) had a greater effect on methanol conversion. In addition, the effect of water in the feed on methanol conversion was quantitatively studied. Also, the deactivation kinetics of γ-Al2O3 heterogeneous-acidic catalyst in methanol to dimethyl ether dehydration process was studied using integral analysis method. Based on independent deactivation kinetics, a second order was found that accurately fitted the experimental conversion time data. The main reaction activation energies and catalyst deactivation energies were 143.1 and −102.1 kJ/mol, respectively.