In this work, the methanol synthesis on a commercial industrial catalyst in a novel cylindrical radial flow packed-bed reactor is investigated. The adiabatic and nonadiabatic cylindrical radial flow reactors were proposed and modeled in this research. The proposed configuration has been compared with conventional reactor for methanol production. It leads to higher methanol production and lower pressure drop, with the same catalyst consumption. Furthermore, the results show that the nonadiabatic radial flow packed-bed reactor has a higher methanol content compared with the adiabatic one. The improvement in methanol production was studied by optimizing the essential parameters such as inlet temperatures of the feed and cooling water as well as the number of cooling tubes. The nonlinearity and complexity of the reactor models make the traditional optimization methods ineffective and improbable. Therefore, the process was optimized by genetic algorithm (GA) method, which is one of the most powerful methods. The optimum values for the number of cooling tubes, feed and cooling water temperatures were 308, 507.6 K, and 522.43 K, respectively. The optimization results showed that a new reactor design could be proposed to reduce the cost of methanol synthesis.
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April 2019
Research-Article
A Novel Reactor Configuration for Industrial Methanol Production From the Synthesis Gas
Payam Parvasi,
Payam Parvasi
Department of Chemical,
Petroleum and Gas Engineering,
Shiraz University of Technology,
Shiraz 13876-71557, Iran
Petroleum and Gas Engineering,
Shiraz University of Technology,
Shiraz 13876-71557, Iran
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Seyyed Mohammad Jokar
Seyyed Mohammad Jokar
Department of Chemical,
Petroleum and Gas Engineering,
Shiraz University of Technology,
Shiraz 13876-71557, Iran
e-mail: jokar@sutech.ac.ir
Petroleum and Gas Engineering,
Shiraz University of Technology,
Shiraz 13876-71557, Iran
e-mail: jokar@sutech.ac.ir
Search for other works by this author on:
Payam Parvasi
Department of Chemical,
Petroleum and Gas Engineering,
Shiraz University of Technology,
Shiraz 13876-71557, Iran
Petroleum and Gas Engineering,
Shiraz University of Technology,
Shiraz 13876-71557, Iran
Seyyed Mohammad Jokar
Department of Chemical,
Petroleum and Gas Engineering,
Shiraz University of Technology,
Shiraz 13876-71557, Iran
e-mail: jokar@sutech.ac.ir
Petroleum and Gas Engineering,
Shiraz University of Technology,
Shiraz 13876-71557, Iran
e-mail: jokar@sutech.ac.ir
1Corresponding author.
Contributed by the Advanced Energy Systems Division of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY. Manuscript received May 26, 2018; final manuscript received November 11, 2018; published online December 24, 2018. Assoc. Editor: Esmail M. A. Mokheimer.
J. Energy Resour. Technol. Apr 2019, 141(4): 042007 (7 pages)
Published Online: December 24, 2018
Article history
Received:
May 26, 2018
Revised:
November 11, 2018
Citation
Parvasi, P., and Mohammad Jokar, S. (December 24, 2018). "A Novel Reactor Configuration for Industrial Methanol Production From the Synthesis Gas." ASME. J. Energy Resour. Technol. April 2019; 141(4): 042007. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4042025
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