KINETICS AND TRANSPORT PARAMETERS FOR THE FIXED-BED CATALYTIC INCINERATION OF VOLATILE ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS

The accurate sizing of a commercial catalytic incinerator from laboratory data requires a comprehensive mathematical model for the reactor. Allied Signal has developed one such model, which is capable of (a) predicting Langmuir-Hinshelwood rate constants and the alumina layer mass-transfer coefficient through a nonlinear regression fitting of the experimental data obtained in a laboratory adiabatic, fixed-bed reactor and (b) sizing a commercial reactor for the desired performance for given sets of kinetic and transport parameters. The model considers axial dispersion of both mass and heat as well as mass-transfer resistance at the gas-solid interface. The mathematical model correlated the experimental data for the conversions of n-hexane, n-octane, n-decane, and n-dodecane well over wide ranges of superficial gas velocities, bed depths, temperatures, and inlet concentrations.