Comparison of Reaction in Catalyst Pellet Between Three-Dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics and One-Dimensional Multiphysics Simulations

Waller, Christian Philip

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Comparison of Reaction in Catalyst Pellet Between Three-Dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics and One-Dimensional Multiphysics Simulations

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The field of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) revolutionized research in the field of fluid dynamics because of its ability to numerically solve difficult systems of equations. Recently CFD has been applied to chemical reaction engineering problems. The reaction investigated in this study is the esterification of methanol and acetic acid over a B-zeolite catalyst. First, kinetic parameters describing this reaction were determined via experimentation. Then both 3D CFD simulations and 1D multiphysics simulations of diffusion and reaction were conducted and compared. Diffusion and reaction limitations were characterized and observed intra-pellet concentration gradients were examined. Qualitative comparisons between the 3D CFD results and H-NMR analysis are also discussed.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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