Deactivation of methanol catalysts; A comparison of a dynamic modeling study with an industrial water-cooled methanol reactor

In this paper, a comprehensive dynamic study was conducted on the performance of an industrial water-cooled methanol reactor. The employed model consists of a pseudo-homogeneous model for mass transfer equation and a set of heat transfer equations, specialized for a packed catalytic bed. To achieve this, experimental data was gathered from a multi-tube catalytic reactor from a long-term performance reactor. For the dynamic analysis of catalyst deactivation, heat and mass transfer equations along with a model for catalyst aging were combined. The parameters of the deactivation model were adjusted, which resulted in good consistency with the experimental results for methanol production rate and reactor outlet temperature. This makes the proposed model a versatile tool for optimization and prediction of the catalyst's remaining lifetime, before its mechanical status fails. In addition, these results indicated that the cooling medium temperature and inlet pressure have significant effects on the activity of the catalyst, which are more than that of the reactor inlet temperature. Regarding catalyst selectivity, the simulation results also reveal that as the catalyst ages, the water-gas shift reaction rate decreases, which reduces both methanol reaction rate and its purity.