Reactive simulation of industrial methanol-to-olefins fluidized bed reactors and parameter analysis.

Previous simulations of different-sized MTO fluidized beds indicated that the reactive predictions gradually deviate from the experiment with the reactor scale-up. This study aimed to find the underlying reasons by investigating effects of kinetic models and coke content. Two kinetic models were separately integrated into the multi-fluid model, and a reactor model was then established considering coke distribution. It showed that the ratio of ethylene to propylene is still over-predicted even the kinetic model considers the conversion of ethylene to propylene if using average coke content in simulation, but considering a reasonable coke content distribution both models can give better predictions in methanol conversion, hydrocarbon products and selectivity to light olefins. It indicated that coke content distribution plays a critical role in reaction predictions and the kinetic models with similar component classification mainly affect the variation of products along the bed height due to different reaction routes. [Display omitted] • The role of kinetic models are investigated in reactive simulation of an industrial MTO reactor. • The coke content plays a more critical role in reaction predictions. • The kinetic model mainly affects the variation of products along space position in reactor. • Both kinetic models considering coke distribution can give reasonable reaction predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]