Comparison of random and monolithic fixed-bed reactors for the oxidative dehydrogenation of butene to butadiene

•Models of random reactor and monolithic reactor are built including transfer diffusion process.•Random reactor and monolithic reactor are compared by simulating result.•Two catalyst properties of monolithic reactor are evaluated and discussed.

In this paper, both random reactor and monolithic fixed-bed reactor models that consider mass and heat transfer for the ODH of butene to butadiene were simulated and solved through a numerical method. The performances of the monolithic reactor and random reactors in three void fractions were compared by analysing the conversion rate, temperature distribution and product selectivity base on the multi-scale models of the two reactors. The influence of catalyst porosity and catalyst thermal conductivity on the monolithic reactor was also evaluated and discussed. The monolithic catalyst reactor showed better reaction and selectivity than the random reactors; however, its heat transfer efficiency was lower than that of the random reactors under the same reaction conditions and contact-time. Moreover, the temperature stability of the monolithic reactor control was needed in the actual production.

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