From Laboratory to Industrial Operation: Model-Based Digital Design and Optimization of Fixed-Bed Catalytic Reactors

Careful design of catalytic reactors can reduce both the cost and risk associated with new designs and can reduce ownership costs significantly through better performance during operation. Digital design techniques based on high-fidelity predictive models now afford a way of doing this rapidly and effectively. Such techniques make it possible to perform detailed design of multitubular reactors taking into account multiscale effects, from catalyst pore to industrial reactor, by combining high-fidelity models with model-targeted experimentation. Further benefits can be realized by implementation of the detailed model online for monitoring, forecasting, and optimization. This paper introduces the digital design approach for design, optimization, and online implementation of fixed-bed catalytic reactors, with examples taken from selected industrial cases.