Improvement of Methanol Synthesis Process through a Novel Sorption-Enhanced Fluidized-bed Reactor, Part I: Mathematical Modeling

In the first part of two section paper, a mathematical model of the fluidized bed reactor in the presence of in-situ water adsorbent for methanol synthesis is assessed. The bubbling two-phase regime is applied to model the fluidization concept. The binary adsorbent and catalyst particles system can be separated from each other based on their density difference. The heavy catalyst particles tend to sink and the light adsorbent particles tend to rise. The inducement for in situ water vapor removal by using adsorbent particles (Zeolite 4A) is to displace the water-gas shift equilibrium to improve methanol productivity. This is accomplished through the methanol synthesis process.
Simulation result indicate that selective adsorption of water in the fluidized bed configuration leads to 46.36% and 41.88% enhancement in methanol production and 26.143% and 25.63 % in selectivity, compared with the zero solid mass ratio condition and conventional reactor, respectively. This model is applied in a multi-objective optimization and decision making method to be presented in the upcoming study, Part II.