QUALITATIVE OBSERVATIONS OF HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER EFFECTS ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF A TRICKLE BED REACTOR

This paper examines the effect of simultaneous heat and mass transfer on the hydrogenation of cyclohexene in a trickle bed reactor with particular attention given to the problem of liquid phase evaporation and transition to the gas-phase regime of operation. The reaction rates are obtained as a function of temperature and hydrogen flow rate; the concentration of the substrate in the feed displays considerable hysteresis due to an abrupt increase of the reaction rate arising from temperature gradients within the bed and in the gas film surrounding the catalyst pellet, during the transition from the liquid to the gas-phase regime. The transition is accompanied by the change of apparent kinetics of the model reaction as well as by a change of regime and operation of the pellet. In the liquid phase a pellet originally showing inter-phase and intra-particle diffusion resistances changes into the gas-phase regime with a large resistance due to inter-phase diffusion.