MODELING OF TRANSPORT PHENOMENA IN TWO-PHASE FILM-FLOW SYSTEMS: APPLICATION TO MONOLITH REACTORS

Abstract

Transport phenomena in two-phase systems represent the basis of many industrial processes. The hydrodynamic behavior and process kinetics are crucial, especially when reacting systems are considered. For the modeling of such systems, usually the rate-based approach is applied, because it can handle even very complex hydrodynamic conditions. However, this method requires several experimental parameters, e.g., mass transfer coefficients. For processes with less complex flow patterns, alternative, more rigorous modeling methods can be applied. For instance, the fluid dynamic approach describes the fluid phase behavior based on classical partial differential transport equations and considers the real geometry of column internals directly. This method does not need mass transfer coefficients. In this work, we apply both the rate-based and fluid dynamic approaches to a particular process, namely, the esterification of 1-octanol and hexanoic acid in a film-flow monolith reactor, and analyze their performance.

Keywords:

• Fluid dynamic approach
• Monolith reactors
• Rate-based modeling
• Reactive stripping
• Two-phase film-flow systems