Sk. Bej et al., Effect of diluent size on the performance of a micro-scale fixed bed multiphase reactor in up flow and down flow modes of operation, CATAL TODAY, 64(3-4), 2001, pp. 333-345
The comparative behaviors of a micro-scale fixed bed multiphase reactor in
up flow and down how modes of operation were studied fur hydrodesulfurizati
on of atmospheric gas oil over a commercial catalyst. The experiments for t
he two modes of operation were conducted for a wide range of diluent size a
nd other process variables such as liquid hourly space velocity and hydroge
n/gas oil ratio. The results showed that the down how mode of operation usi
ng 0.19 mm size of diluent could be used for generatings reliable and meani
ngful data. On the other hand, the use of up flow mode of operation is rest
ricted only for higher space velocities even while using 0.19 mm size of di
luent. The results also indicated that the performance of the up flow mode
of operation was poor at higher hydrogen/gas oil ratio. This change in perf
ormance is pronounced when higher size of diluent was used with the catalys
t. In contrary, the hydrogen/gas oil ratio had minimum effect on the perfor
mance of the reactor for down flow mode of operation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sci
ence B.V. All rights reserved.