MODELING OF CATALYTIC SO2 OXIDATION FOR CONTINUOUS AND PERIODIC LIQUID FLOW-THROUGH A TRICKLE-BED

SO2 oxidation over an activated carbon catalyst in a dynamically opera ted, adiabatic trickle bed can be described by a system of partial dif ferential equations representing mass balances on four components in t wo phases, a fifth component only in the gas phase, two heat balances (one in the mixed fluid phase and the other for the stationary catalys t particles) and a total mass balance on the liquid phase. A stable, e fficient algorithm has been developed to integrate the system of equat ions so as to predict the temperature profile in the bed and the acid concentration leaving the trickle bed. The adjustable parameter used t o obtain the prediction, the wetting fraction, agrees well with experi mental correlations of wetting vs liquid flow. The model is thus accur ate. The effect of different kinetic models for SO2 oxidation on the s imulations is examined.