Trickle bed reactors is widely used in the oil industry because of the advantages offered. In a trickle bed reactor, the oxidation of ethanol is to be carried out. The reaction is first order with respect to oxygen and zero-order with respect to ethanol. The reactor is 30 cm in diameter and 6 m long and the bed porosity is 40%. The Pd/Al2O3 catalyst pellets are 0.5 cm in diameter and have a density of 1800 kg/m3. The diffusivity of oxygen in ethanol is 4 x 10-10 m2/s and the equilibrium solubility is 4 x 10-2 kmol/m3 at reaction conditions. The superficial gas velocity is recorded to be 10 cm/s and the corresponding pressure gradient is 30 kPa/m. The superficial liquid-phase velocity is 0.25 cm/s. The specific reaction rate is 0.03 s-1. Tortuosity = 3.9, εp = 0.6, constriction factor, σ = 0.8. a. Calculate the percentage of total resistance for each transport step. b. Predict the conversion of ethanol.
