THE DESIGN OF REVERSE FLOW REACTORS FOR CATALYTIC COMBUSTION SYSTEMS

Periodic reversal of the gas feed to a catalytic plug flow reactor can be used for the autothermal combustion of very dilute volatile organi c compounds. This paper examines the system through a series of progre ssively simplified models. A full dynamic model, a high switching freq uency model, and a complete combustion model are presented and discuss ed. A design procedure for the reverse flow reactor is given. It uses the various simplified models to generate a base design, which is then extended to the full transient model. The design procedure is able to predict the maximum temperature and inert end section sizing.