Model-Based Investigation of a Pellet String Reactor

Abstract By means of numerical modeling, the behavior of chemical reactors for multiphase reactions can be predicted and the experimental effort can be reduced to a minimum. A Pellet String Reactor for a heterogeneously catalyzed reaction has been investigated based on a model built with the CFD software COMSOL Multiphysics ® 4.2a [1] . Pressure drop and residence time distribution studies were performed to evaluate the reactor design regarding its hydrodynamic characteristics. The influence of the fluid velocity is discussed as well as the model dimension. For an estimation of the hydrodynamic characteristics a 2D model was regarded as sufficient.