Computational fluid dynamic analysis to investigate methanol synthesis on the commercial catalysts

Abstract

In this study, a novel plate methanol reactor (shell and plate) with a higher heat transfer rate compared to the conventional counterparts (shell and tube) was investigated. In fact, in the new configuration, all of the tubes were replaced with plates, and thereby the heat transfer area increased. To compare the two configurations (the conventional reactor (CR) and the plate reactor (PLR)), a two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed. To draw a more meaningful comparison, an equal amount of catalyst was considered for both configurations. The modeling results were also compared with available industrial data, illustrating a good agreement. Results also showed that the main superiority of the obtained temperature of reactant gas and coolant gas in PLR, respectively, was 13 °C more and 9 °C less than CR. This result implies that the increase in the surface area in PLR can increase the heat transfer rate, and thereby increasing the methanol production.