Estimation of catalyst activity profiles in fixed bed reactors

Abstract

The description of the steady state operation of a fixed bed catalytic reactor requires a certain amount of information about the catalyst activity distribution. For a monofunctional catalyst with no transport limitations the total catalyst activity is sufficient for describing the steady reactor operation. The total activity can be easily estimated from measurements at the reactor exit. In the presence of diffusional limitations, or in the case of bifunctional catalysts, the reactor description requires knowledge of the detailed activity profile. This can be approximately determined by parametrization and estimation of the parameters from a few measurements along the reactor. An application of the parametrization technique is made to a simplified model of naphtha reforming.