Modeling and Simulation of an Industrial Trickle-Bed Reactor for Benzene Hydrogenation: Model Validation against Plant Data

A heterogeneous three-phase reactor model is used to simulate an industrial trickle-bed reactor for benzene hydrogenation, and simulated temperature profiles are compared to actual plant data. The agreement of model predictions with measured data is excellent. Analysis of the results shows that the process is limited by gas−liquid mass transfer of hydrogen. The simulation results show high sensitivity toward the liquid film mass transfer coefficient kLa. Some correlations for kLa are tested, and their validity is evaluated. The estimated values of kLa and kGa are comparable to measured values from a bench-scale reactor reported in the literature.