A Comparison of Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Dynamic Models for Industrial Catalytic Reactors in the Face of Catalyst Deactivation

Simulations of a fixed-bed industrial methanol reactor have been studied in the presence of long term catalyst deactivation. The performance of the reactor was investigated using two different dynamic models: (a) a homogeneous model, and (b) a heterogeneous model. Both the models were found to predict the identical results at industrial operating conditions. The models have been verified against daily observed process data of a methanol plant for four years of operation and good agreement was found. By analyzing the results of the homogeneous model, it was shown that there is a non-uniform catalyst deactivation along the reactor. Simple model, of the type presented here, represents a useful beginning in the optimization and control of reactor for methanol synthesis, since it is capable of describing many of the qualitative trends observed with such reactors.