Ocampo, Pearl Jane R.

CHE172
DESIGN OF COOLED TUBULAR REACTOR SYSTEMS
By: William L. Luyben
Journal Critique:
The journal article is all about the design of cooled tubular reactor systems and the parameters
that affect its modifications. It showed the relationships between tube geometry, pressure
drop, and heat-transfer area. According to the paper, there is a tradeoff between reactor size
and recycle flow rate. If we lowered the reactor inlet temperature, the recycle flow rates will be
lowered and can be used for a given maximum-allowable reactor exit temperature, but reactor
size increases. This is tested in this journal. It is also required or economical to use internal
cooling on the tubular reactor and the effect of having cooling system is studied. These
important tradeoffs in cooled tubular reactor systems (tube geometry, compression costs,
reactor size, and heat-transfer area) are explored in this paper. The paper considered the effect
of these parameters on getting the optimum steady-state economic design of the entire
process of the plant and presents a design methodology for considering all these complex
tradeoffs.
The tubular reactors that are used in the industry have exothermic gas-phase reactions.
Exothermic reaction means that as the reaction takes place it releases heat. These reactors
dont have any gain or loss on the heat which means that there are operated adiabatically that
result in increasing temperature at the exit of the reactor. Lowering the inlet temperature of
the reactor allow us to use smaller recycle flow rates for a given maximum-allowable reactor
exit temperature but the size of the reactor will increase. Tube diameter, tube length and
number of tubes are not an issue since there is no heat transfer and can easily be adjusted to
have a pressure drop that is dictated by the economics of compression costs. Having an internal
cooling in the reactor permits the use of even smaller recycle flow rates for the same maximum
temperature. Critical part of these cooled reactors is the heat transfer and so diameter of the
tube becomes an important design optimization. The process flowsheet is provided in the paper
and is tested given the two gas-phase feed following all the necessary conditions. An
exothermic, gas-phase irreversible reaction A + B -> C. Reactor effluent is cooled and simplified
separation section is assumed and the separator drum does not contain any reactant
components of A or B and the gas from separator does not contain C. The reactor inlet
temperature is adjusted using the firing rate in the furnace and for a simplified design, the
temperature is assumed to be equal to the coolant temperature. Ergun equation was used to
relate the superficial velocity in the reactor to the pressure drop of the system. They assumed
the values for the viscosity, particle size and porosity.
Lowering the inlet temperature of the reactor allow us to use smaller recycle flow rates for a
given maximum-allowable reactor exit temperature but the size of the reactor will increase.
This shows the inverse proportionality of the recycle flow rate and reactor size having
influenced by the temperature in the inlet and outlet of the reactor. Internal cooling is more
economical and this allows us to have a smaller recycle flow rates for the same maximum
temperature. It gives us lower flow rates even if we already exercise the lowest possible recycle
flow rate in the influence of inlet temperature as what is explained. Before using internal
Ocampo, Pearl Jane R.
CHE172
cooling, it is expected that the maximum temperature will occur at the exit but now the peak
temperature occurs not at the exit of the reactor but at some intermediate axial location in the
reactor. It is said in the introduction part of the paper that the geometry of the reactor (tube
diameter, tube length and number of tubes) is easily adjustable since there is no heat transfer
but having a heat transfer will be a critical part of these reactors because it affects the
optimization of the design. Smaller tube diameter results in having a bigger transfer area and a
larger pressure drop due to higher velocity. But this also affects the cost of the reactor since
designing for small pressure drop reduces the compression cost of the reactor. There is a peak
temperature for us to prevent the degradation of the catalyst or any side reactions that are not
needed in the reaction. The process that is simulated in the process flowsheet was tested.
Regarding the inlet temperature, it is assumed to be equal to the coolant temperature. This
eliminates the possibility of any heat transfer from the shell side. The graphs in the paper
showed the effects of various parameters in the reactors such as the composition and
temperature profiles. The results showed that lower coolant temperature will have lower peak
temperature and lower conversion. Decreasing the heat transfer causes the peak temperatures
and conversions rise.
These tradeoffs in the design of cooled tubular reactor systems are analyzed in this paper and
the methodology to incorporate the interaction between these parameters were tested and
verified. Through this study, we have understood some points for the effect of the various
design parameters on the performance of cooled tubular reactors. The production rate is fixed
for all the cases tested and with this, there are two design degrees of freedom in the system,
tube diameter and pressure drop of the reactor. For us to have a lower compression cost, we
need to lower the pressure drop which is also affected by the heat transfer within the system.
Another factor is by increasing the tube diameter that reduces the capital cost. We have
noticed that the coolant temperature decreases significantly when the tube diameter increases.
This is because of the smaller heat transfer area. This produces lower average temperatures in
the reactor, which requires more catalyst and higher recycle flow rates. The effect of tube
diameter on reactor cost shows an interesting tradeoff. As tube diameter increases, heat
transfer area decreases, so the cost of the reactor vessel decreases. However, the cost of the
catalyst increases because more is required at the lower average reactor temperatures. But it
only considered a steady-state design. These give somewhat poor dynamic responses due to
the small heat transfer area that made the manipulation and study of heat removal difficult. For
me, this paper is a success. With the results and conclusions, this paper is helpful for us to have
a design with optimum use having lesser cost. The method calculated for the optimum recycle
flow rate, reactor size, compression load, and coolant temperature.