Bazai, M.Bazai, HassanMirvakili, A.Rahimpour, M.R.2021-12-102022Bazai, M., Bazai, H., Mirvakili, A. et al. Computational Fluid Dynamic Analysis to Investigate Methanol Synthesis on the Commercial Catalysts. Top Catal (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11244-021-01519-9. NYP.1022-5528 (print)1572-9028 (online)10.1007/s11244-021-01519-9http://hdl.handle.net/2263/83019In 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.en© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. The original publication is available at : http://link.springer.com/journal/11244.Tubular reactorsMethanol productionHeat transferConventional reactor (CR)Plate reactor (PLR)Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)Engineering, built environment and information technology articles SDG-04SDG-04: Quality educationEngineering, built environment and information technology articles SDG-07SDG-07: Affordable and clean energyEngineering, built environment and information technology articles SDG-09SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructureEngineering, built environment and information technology articles SDG-13SDG-13: Climate actionPostprint Article