Modeling Transient Tracing in Plug-Flow Reactors: A Case Study

For heterogeneous catalysis, ordinary differential equations in time can be used to interpret transient tracer data obtained in a continuous stirred tank reactor or gradientless reactor in which a steady-state reaction is occurring. The same procedure is often used for plug-flow reactor modeling. However, for transient tracing data obtained with a plug-flow reactor operating under differential conversion, it is necessary to use a set of partial differential equations involving distance through the reactor as well as time. In this paper, the authors present a case study of methanation on a nickel catalyst to illustrate the modeling procedure needed to estimate the desired parameters.