Optimization of acrolein production in a fixed-bed reactor system

A two-dimensional fixed-bed catalytic reactor model for acrolein production has been developped. The reactor and kinetic models have been identified by using both laboratory-scale and pilot-scale measurements. Many operating conditions such as coolant temperature, feeding rate, inlet pressure and temperature have great influence on the yield of acrolein and also on the bed temperature which are two very important parameters. More specifically, the coolant temperature and feeding rate are the two most important parameters for the acrolein production. With a set of different feed rates, the coolant temperature and the reactor inlet temperature were optimized to maximise the yield of acrolein for a given reactor length and inlet pressure. There was an optimal feeding rate for the maximum yield of acrolein. The study of the influence of number of the cooling sections with different temperatures shows that there was no significant improvement in the yield of acrolein.