MODELING OF CONDENSATION PROCESS INSIDE SMOOTH HORIZONTAL TUBES

Abstract

The extraordinary property of DME made it an alternative to LPG, natural gas and diesel. DME has attracted attention of many researchers from industrial purposes. Methanol dehydration carried out in adiabatic fixed bed reactor is production process of DME synthesis. In present work, the reactor is preceded by feed preheater has been simulated under unsteady state conditions. Non linear Partial differential equation was solved considering it to one dimension pseudo homogenous model. Validation of model was done on comparing simulation results with experimental data. For model simulation, adiabatic fixed bed reactor was packed with 1.5 mm γ-Al2O3 pellets as catalyst. The process occurred in the temperature range of 543-603 K at atmospheric pressure. Also, the effect of WHSV, temperature, and flow rate on conversion of methanol was monitored. By adding water to methanol feed, catalyst deactivation take place rapidly. Hence, the results were obtained considering pure methanol as a feed.