Liquid phase methanol synthesis process: Effect of operating parameters on mass transfer characteristics

Book · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:43149

Vijayaraghavan, P; Lee, S ^[1]; Kulik, C J ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Akron, OH (United States)
2. Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)

The rate of gas-liquid mass transfer plays a crucial role in the liquid phase methanol synthesis (LPMeOH{trademark}) process. As the catalyst concentration in slurry increases, the productivity of methanol in the three-phase reactor system is controlled by the rate of gas liquid mass transfer. Commercial reactors are usually operated in the mass transfer limited regimes, to optimize the productivity of the reactor and minimize the operating costs. In order to predict the productivity of methanol at various catalyst concentrations in slurry, and under various operating conditions, it is necessary to develop a correlation for the gas-liquid mass transfer rate for the LPMeOH process. The effect of various operating conditions including, temperature and pressure of the reactor system, velocity of syngas and slurry, reactor geometry, and catalyst concentration in slurry, on the gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient was investigated. The development of a correlation to predict the mass-transfer coefficient in the mechanically agitated slurry reactor and in the liquid entrained reactor, for the liquid phase methanol synthesis process will be discussed. The prediction of the methanol productivity using the mass-transfer expression obtained for both the reactor systems will be presented.

• OSTI ID: 43149
• Report Number(s): CONF-940930--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
CATALYSTS
CHEMICAL REACTION YIELD
CHEMICAL REACTORS
CONCENTRATION RATIO
DESIGN
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLOW MODELS
GAS FLOW
LIQUID PHASE METHANOL PROCESS
MASS TRANSFER
METHANOL
PRESSURE DEPENDENCE
SYNTHESIS GAS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE