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Simulation Study of Ceramic Fibrous Structured Catalysts for CO2 Methanation—Enhancement of the Performance and Comparison to Pellet Catalysts

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Abstract

Fibrous catalysts have shown to enhance mass and heat transfer for fast and exothermic reactions. However, these catalysts can be limited by the pressure drop and achievable productivity, due to the flow rates that can be processed and the catalyst content in the reactor. This paper studies the effect of the geometry of fibrous catalysts on reactor performance by applying them to the reaction of CO2 methanation. A fixed-bed reactor model was used to simulate and study variations in fiber diameter and catalyst coating thickness, and their influence on pressure drop, productivity and reactor efficiency. A comparison basis to traditional pellet catalysts with different reactor configurations is established. Fibrous catalysts show superior reaction heat removal and temperature management, higher catalyst utilization, and smaller catalyst fractions to achieve the intended conversions. Smaller, more compact reactors can be designed thanks to their higher global efficiency. The results show the advantages and versatility of structured ceramic fibrous catalysts, as alternatives for process intensification, and to improve overall reactor performance.

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Abbreviations

\({A}_{j}\) :

Pre-exponential factor of kinetic constant \({k}_{j}\), units from reference [20]

\({a}_{\mathrm{gs}}\) (m− 1):

Gas–solid interfacial surface area per bed volume

\(c\) (mol m− 3):

Concentration

\(d\) (m):

Diameter

\({E}_{\mathrm{reactor}}\) (1):

Reactor efficiency

\({\Delta E}_{\mathrm{ext}}\) (1):

Efficiency losses due to external mass transfer limitations

\({\Delta E}_{\mathrm{int}}\) (1):

Efficiency losses due to internal mass transfer limitations

\({\Delta E}_{\mathrm{T}}\) (1):

Efficiency losses due to heat transfer limitations

\(Ea\) (kJ mol− 1):

Activation energy

\({G}_{\mathrm{mol}}\) (mol s− 1 m− 2):

Specific inlet molar flow rate

\(h\) (kW m− 2 K− 1):

Heat transfer coefficient

\(\Delta {H}_{\mathrm{r}}\) (kJ mol− 1):

Reaction enthalpy

\({K}_{i}:\) :

Adsorption constant of species \(i\), units from reference [20]

\({K}_{j}:\) :

Equilibrium constant of reaction \(j\), units from reference [20]

\({k}_{j}:\) :

Reaction rate constant for reaction \(j\), units from reference [20]

\({L}_{\mathrm{R}}\) (m):

Reactor length

\(Nu\) (1):

Nusselt number, \(Nu=\frac{h d}{\lambda }\)

p (kPa):

Pressure

\(P{e}_{T}\) (1):

Thermal Péclet number, \(Pe=\frac{d u \rho {c}_{p}}{\lambda }\)

\(\Delta p\) (kPa):

Pressure drop

\(\Delta p/L\) (kPa m− 1):

Pressure drop per unit of length

\({p}_{i}\) (kPa):

Partial pressure of species \(i\)

\(r\) (mol kgcat − 1 s− 1):

Reaction rate

\(R\) (kJ mol− 1 K− 1):

Universal gas constant

\(RA\) (1):

Relative activity

\(\overline{RA }\) (1):

Average relative activity

\(Re\) (1):

Reynolds number, \(Re=\frac{\rho u d}{\mu }\)

\(T\) (K):

Temperature

\({x}_{\mathrm{cat}}\) (1):

Catalyst volumetric fraction in the reactor

\({y}_{i}\) (1):

Molar fraction of species \(i\)

\(z\) (m):

Axial coordinate

\(\delta \) (m):

Layer thickness

\(\varepsilon \) (1):

Porosity

\(\eta \) (1):

Effectiveness factor

\(\lambda \) (kW m− 1 K− 1):

Thermal conductivity

\(\rho \) (kg m− 3):

Density

\(\tau \) (1):

Tortuosity

0:

Reactor inlet

B:

Bed

cat:

Catalyst

charact:

Characteristic

eff:

Effective

ext:

External

g:

Gas

gs:

Gas–solid

\(i\) :

Species \(i\)

\(j\) :

Reaction \(j\)

max:

Maximum

p:

Particle

pore:

Pore

s:

Solid

tube:

Reactor tube

w:

Wall

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Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support received from Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT, Grant PICT 2016 N°2710), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET, Grant PIP 2015), and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD, CUAA-DAHZ, Grant D/14/07554).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones en Catálisis y Petroquímica, INCAPE (FIQ, UNL-CONICET), Santiago del Estero 2829, 3000, Santa Fe, Argentina

    Agustina Sánchez, Viviana G. Milt & Eduardo E. Miró

  2. Institute of Chemical Engineering, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89081, Ulm, Germany

    Robert Güttel

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  1. Agustina Sánchez
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  2. Viviana G. Milt
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  3. Eduardo E. Miró
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  4. Robert Güttel
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Contributions

AS: Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, visualization, writing—original draft preparation. VGM: Conceptualization, writing—review & editing, supervision, EEM: Conceptualization, writing—review & editing, supervision. RG: Conceptualization, writing—review & editing, supervision.

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Correspondence to Agustina Sánchez.

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Sánchez, A., Milt, V.G., Miró, E.E. et al. Simulation Study of Ceramic Fibrous Structured Catalysts for CO2 Methanation—Enhancement of the Performance and Comparison to Pellet Catalysts. Top Catal 65, 1317–1330 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11244-022-01675-6

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