Adiabatic laboratory reactor design and verification

An adiabatic laboratory fixed bed reactor design is presented. Such a reactor finds application in catalyst testing when final product quality must be evaluated and the reacting system has a high heat release. The design was modeled and verified experimentally with a nonreacting system. The model was used to suggest design improvements and analyze radial and axial heat loss contributions. It was found that the axial heat flux was 2 orders of magnitude more than the radial heat flux, but since the area for radial heat exchange was much larger, both contributed equally to the heat loss of the design. The reactor had an adiabatic zone of 0.8 m and 1 kW(.)m(-3) heat loss. This is equivalent to a 4 degrees C temperature loss for a hydrocarbon feed at a space velocity of 1 h(-1). The design was also tested with a reacting system, and the adiabatic temperature rise during coal tar naphtha hydrogenation was within 2 degrees C of a comparable commercial unit. The adiabatic laboratory reactor therefore proved itself capable of mimicking commercial operation.