Modelagem bidimensional de um reator de leito fixo para a desidratação catalítica de etanol a eteno

Abstract

The process of catalytic dehydration of ethanol has gained highlight nowadays considering the possibility of ethylene production using renewable source as raw material, whose process has higher yields and softer operating conditions when compared to the main route of production of ethylene, the steam cracking of naphtha. In the national scope, this route gains an even greater highlight since Brazil is a major producer of ethanol using sugarcane as raw material. In this context, the modeling and simulation of the catalytic dehydration of ethanol help in the development and optimization of the process. The objective of this work is the evaluation of a bidimensional model of a fixed bed reactor with heat transfer on industrial scale, evaluating the different types of boundary conditions in the radial coordinate and comparing the simulation results with data from a pilot plant. Among the results are the parameter estimation that allowed fitting the data of the model with experiments satisfactorily and the analysis of the boundary condition with equal heat flow that coherently described the thermic exchange in the reactor jacket. Therefore, bidimensional model is an important tool in study of non-adiabatic fixed bed reactors and in evaluation of their radial heat distribution.