Toluene methylation to para-xylene

To investigate the effect of operational parameter and transport phenomena on para-xylene production from toluene methylation with methanol, a fixed bed tubular reactor packed with Al-HMS-5 mesoporous catalyst was numerically studied. A mechanistic Longmuir-Hinshelwood-type kinetic study has been im...

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Published inJournal of thermal analysis and calorimetry Vol. 135; no. 3; pp. 1723 - 1732
Main Authors Abdi-khanghah, Mahdi, Alrashed, Abdullah A. A. A, Hamoule, Touba, Behbahani, Reza Mosayebi, Goodarzi, Marjan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer 01.02.2019
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Activation energy
Chemical reactions
Computational fluid dynamics
Finite element method
Fixed beds
Fluid flow
Isomerization
Methylation
Optimization
Organic chemistry
Parameters
Residence time distribution
Temperature distribution
Toluene
Transport phenomena
Wall temperature
Xylene
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Summary:To investigate the effect of operational parameter and transport phenomena on para-xylene production from toluene methylation with methanol, a fixed bed tubular reactor packed with Al-HMS-5 mesoporous catalyst was numerically studied. A mechanistic Longmuir-Hinshelwood-type kinetic study has been implemented on a proposed reaction network based on former experimental observation and theoretical background. Kinetic parameters and activation energy related to proposed reaction network for toluene methylation were evaluated using nonlinear regression and Arrhenius plot, respectively. In addition, heat transfer, fluid flow, and chemical reaction equations consisting of toluene methylation and xylene isomerization were solved using finite element method. In order to optimize toluene methylation process, reaction temperature and residence time were investigated. The results showed that uniform distribution of temperature exists at the reactor. There is only deviation from uniform temperature at the reactor entrance, but in other places, the temperature distribution is uniform. As a result, fluid temperature quickly becomes the same as the wall temperature, making the toluene methylation reaction highly efficient. Finally, the residence time of 60 s and wall temperature of 425 K were recommended as optimum working values.
ISSN:1388-6150
1588-2926
DOI:10.1007/s10973-018-7228-5