Methanol synthesis from CO2 and H2 in multi-tubular fixed-bed reactor and multi-tubular reactor filled with monoliths

This work investigates the impact of catalyst structuring into particles or monoliths on methanol production from only CO2 and H-2 at a large scale. Methanol synthesis in multi-tubular reactors is evaluated using packed-bed and monolithic reactors by modeling heat and mass transfer in each reactor. The obtained simulation results show that, at low gas hourly space velocity (GHSV= 10,000 h(-1)), the performances of both reactor technologies are similar. In this case, the packed-bed reactor technology is the most appropriate technology due to its simplicity of installation and operation. At high GHSV (25,000 h(-1)), the packed-bed reactor technology is limited by a considerable pressure drop that causes an important loss in productivity due to thermodynamic equilibrium, whereas the monolithic reactors exhibit negligible pressure drop and achieve far better performances. (C) 2014 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.