Multi-Scale Modelling of Catalytic Microreactors

B. Hari[1] and C. Theodoropoulos[1]
[1]The University of Manchester, School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, Manchester, UK
Published in 2009

Microreactors are important alternative to conventional reactors in chemistry, chemical, pharmaceutical and semiconductor industries due to their operation characteristics such as increased mass and heat transfer, uniform flow, safety, high throughput through array configurations, smaller plant size and lower cost of production. Models for such reactors need to be able to describe both the gas-phase and the surface phenomena at different length and time-scales. The gas-phase is based on a convection-diffusion equation, modelled by using COMSOL Multiphysics and MATLAB, while the catalytic surface reactions use a kinetic Monte Carlo approach, including effects of adsorption, desorption, surface reactions and surface diffusion.

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