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Estimation of the remaining lifetime of deactivated catalyst via the spatial average catalyst activity illustrated by the water–gas shift and steam methane reforming processes

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Abstract

In catalytic processes with catalyst deactivation, there is a big problem in estimating the remaining catalyst lifetime since industrial operating conditions are quite uncertain and consequently the non-uniform catalyst activity profile developed in the reactor during operation is unknown. In this article, a simple method for calculating the remaining catalyst lifetime from present operating data is reported. The spatial average catalyst activity, which indicates how much the catalyst has been deactivated, is proposed to denote the present catalyst activity in the reactor. For an isothermal plug flow reactor packed with non-porous catalyst, any catalyst activity profile determines the same reactant conversion if the spatial average activity related to this profile is the same. As a result, the average activity is easily calculated from present operating data without the information of the catalyst deactivation rate. The determined present average activity is used as an initial condition to estimate the remaining catalyst lifetime providing superbly accurate calculation results when the kinetic deactivation expression is characterized by the first order in the catalyst activity. The developed procedure is demonstrated using the water–gas shift reaction and methane steam reforming processes as examples.

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Abbreviations

a :

Catalyst activity

a avg :

Spatial average activity

F i :

Mole flow rate of component i (mol/s)

F total :

Total mole flow rate defined by \(F_{\text{total}} { = }\mathop \sum \nolimits F_{i}\) (mol/s)

k :

Rate constant of the water–gas shift reaction (mol/gcat s)

k d :

Rate constant of the deactivation reaction (1/Pa s)

k p :

Poisoning rate constant (mol/gcat Pa s)

K eq :

Equilibrium constant

P :

Pressure (Pa)

P p :

Partial pressure of the poison compound (Pa)

r i :

Reaction rate for component i (mol/gcat s)

−r CO :

Rate of disappearance of CO (mol/gcat s)

−r p :

Poisoning reaction rate (mol/gcat s)

t :

Time (s)

T :

Temperature (K)

W cat :

Catalyst weight (g)

X :

Conversion

y i :

Mole fraction of component i

ξ :

Dimensionless reactor axial coordinate defined by \(\xi = z /L\)

φ :

Pressure factor defined by Eq. (5); P in the expression has a unit of atm

0:

Initial

In:

Inlet

Out:

Outlet

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Acknowledgement

The financial support provided by the graduate scholarship program of Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University, and the Kasetsart University Research and Development Institute is gratefully acknowledged. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, NANOTEC Center of Excellence for Nanoscale Materials Design for Green Nanotechnology and Center for Advanced Studies in Nanotechnology for Chemical, Food and Agricultural Industries, KU Institute for Advanced Studies, Kasetsart University, 50 Ngamwongwan Road, Bangkok, 10900, Thailand

    Phungphai Phanawadee, Khingkhan Laipraseard, Wanwilai Jamroonrote & Patcharapon Jaipet

  2. Department of Chemistry, Parks College of Engineering, Saint Louis University, 3450 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, MO, 63103, USA

    Gregory S. Yablonsky

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Gregory S. Yablonsky

  4. Department of Mathematical Analysis, Ghent University, Galglaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Denis Constales

Authors
  1. Phungphai Phanawadee
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  2. Khingkhan Laipraseard
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  3. Gregory S. Yablonsky
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  4. Denis Constales
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  5. Wanwilai Jamroonrote
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  6. Patcharapon Jaipet
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Phungphai Phanawadee.

Additional information

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the Figshare repository, https://figshare.com/s/10f50d8b41bcf3577c43.

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Phanawadee, P., Laipraseard, K., Yablonsky, G.S. et al. Estimation of the remaining lifetime of deactivated catalyst via the spatial average catalyst activity illustrated by the water–gas shift and steam methane reforming processes. Reac Kinet Mech Cat 121, 371–385 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11144-017-1170-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11144-017-1170-6

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