Study On Hydrodynamic Performance Of Catalytic Distillation Packings

Catalytic distillation is an important technology for energy saving and process intensification in chemical engineering processes. One of the keys to catalytic distillation is how to layout the solid catalyst in catalytic distillation column to make both catalytic reaction and distillation separation be carried on effectively. Scientists have developed several methods to solve the problem including structures of catalyst packings. In this work, two sorts of catalyst packing were studied involing conventional bale-type packings and permeable catalytic packings developed by our group recently.In this work, hydrodynamic and separation performance of the catalytic distillation column using bale-type catalyst packings with different amount of catalyst loading were studied. As a result, we found that the pressure drop of the catalytic distillation column with bale-type catalyst packings was larger than that of the conventional distillation column, and with the increase in the amount of catalyst loading, pressure drop increased. One reason is higher liquid holdup in this catalytic distillation column compared with that in the conventional distillation columns. However, higher liquid holdup is beneficial for the catalytic reaction. The study also found that the separation efficiency of the catalytic distillation column is lower than the conventional distillation column, because the catalyst particles occupy the volume of the packing, but its separtion efficiency is much lower than packings.This work focuses on the development of permeable catalytic distillation structure, we elaborated the packing on the aspect of its concept, advantages and application, in particular, the ideal model based on the theory of seepage flow and the equation of filter. The correctness of the model was verified by the seepage flow experiments using water, ethanol and gasoline through the catalyst bed. The work studied the pressure drop of the catalytic distillation column with permeable packings in the cold model state through water, ethanol, light gasoline, gasoline and heavy gasoline systems, the data from this experiment is valuable for the design of the catalytic distillation column and its industrial application. This work also studied the liquid holdup of the catalytic distillation column with permeable packings, This may provide a guideline for its application.