CONCEPTUAL BIONIC REACTOR FOR METHANOL SYNTHESIS

摘要

In methanol economy methanol will be used as (1) a convenient energy-storage material,(2) a fuel, and (3)a feedstock to synthesize hydrocarbons and their products. Nowdays, the methanol is almost generated from syngas. Reactors are the most important unit in the methanol synthesis processes, which mainly have the following several kinds: Tube-shell Type (eg. Lurgi), radial bed type (eg. Davy). All of these reactors have different weaknesses at the aspects of heat transfer and pressure drop. The liquid phase methanol process developed by Air Products and US Department of Energy (DOE) has a high conversion per pass. But it also has obvious weaknesses that the catalyst is easy to lose activation and the unit volume production capacity of the reactor is lower than other reactors. This work aims at developing a novel bionic reactor for methanol synthesis containing a feeding system and a discharging system that can decrease the pressure drop in it. In the similar pressure drop as other reactors, the bionic reactor can be packed by smaller catalyst particles and eliminate efficiently the influence of internal diffusion.