Numerical Modeling of the Original and Advanced TEMKIN Reactor for Catalysis Experiments in Laboratory Scale

D. Götz[1], M. Kuhn[1], P. Claus[1]
[1]Ernst-Berl-Institute/Chemical Technology II, Darmstadt, Germany
Published in 2014

Many industrial, especially heterogeneously catalysed, processes are characterised by a strong interaction between the reaction kinetics and transport phenomena. Because experiments in laboratory scale can be very time- and cost-intensive, Temkin and Kul’kova developed a new reactor design for the direct testing of industrial catalysts. Based on this concept of linearly alternating catalyst and inert pellets inside a small tube, our working group developed an advanced version of this reactor where the catalyst pellets are aligned in the centre of separate small cavities. The performance of the two TEMKIN reactor designs regarding catalysis experiments is evaluated and compared by using COMSOL Multiphysics® software.