Liquid Phase Methanol LaPorte Process Development Unit: Modification, operation, and support studies. Task 2.3, Tracer studies in the LaPorte LPMEOH PDU: Topical report, Revision No. 1

摘要

A gas phase and a slurry phase radioactive tracer study was performed on the 12 ton/day Liquid Phase Methanol (LPMEOH) Process Development Unit (PDU) in LaPorte, Texas. To study the gas phase mixing characteristics, a radioactive argon tracer was injected into the feed gas and residence time distribution was generated by measuring the response at the reactor outlet. Radioactive manganese oxide powder was independently injected into the reactor to measure the slurry phase mixing characteristics. A tanks-in-series model and an axial dispersion model were applied to the data to characterize the mixing in the reactor. From the axial dispersion model, a translation to the number of CSTR's (continuous stirred tank reactors) was made for comparison purposes with the first analysis. Dispersion correlations currently available in the literature were also compared. The tanks-in-series analysis is a simpler model whose results are easily interpreted. However, it does have a few drawbacks; among them, the lack of a reliable method for scaleup of a reactor and no direct correlation between mixing in the slurry and gas phases. The dispersion model allows the mixing in the gas and slurry phases to be characterized separately while including the effects of phase transfer. This analysis offers a means for combining the gas and slurry phase dispersion models into an effective dispersion coefficient, which, in turn, can be related to an equivalent number of tanks-in-series. The dispersion methods reported are recommended for scaleup of a reactor system. 24 refs., 18 figs., 8 tabs.