Development of mathematical models for chemical process simulation has been the main focus of research for many years. In the past trickle bed reactor models for various reaction systems were validated with pilot plant data but the development of a dynamic model based on industrial data is rare. Kittisupakorn and Arpornwichanop (1999) have recently developed a steady state model of an industrial trickle-bed reactor for the above system. However, this model is only applicable to predict steady state conditions and inapplicable to design startup and shutdown as well as control studies. Therefore, in this work, a dynamic model of an industrial trickle-bed reactor for describing the hydrogenation reactions of a pyrolysis gasoline in an olefin plant has been developed based on actual plant data. The model results to a set of partial differential equations which were solved by method of lines with approximate spatial derivative terms by an orthogonal collocation method. The model was used to study the response of the process. The simulation results demonstrated that the dynamic response gave a reasonable path from a transient to steady state condition. This dynamic model will be used in future in the formulation of model based control strategies in order to control the reactor.
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