Mathematical Modeling and Simulation of the Dehydrogenation of Ethyl Benzene to Form Styrene Using Steady-State Fixed Bed Reactor

Abstract

In this research, two models are developed to simulate the steady state fixed bed reactor used for styrene production by ethylbenzene dehydrogenation. The first is one-dimensional model, considered axial gradient only while the second is two-dimensional model considered axial and radial gradients for same variables.
The developed mathematical models consisted of nonlinear simultaneous equations in multiple dependent variables. A complete description of the reactor bed involves partial, ordinary differential and algebraic equations (PDEs, ODEs and AEs) describing the temperatures, concentrations and pressure drop across the reactor was given. The model equations are solved by finite differences method. The reactor models were coded with Mat lab 6.5 program and various numerical techniques were used to obtain the desired solution.
The simulation data for both models were validated with industrial reactor results with a very good concordance.
Keywords: Fixed bed reactor, two dimensional models, Simulation, Steady-state, Methylbenzene dehydrogenation.