Flow rate issues in tubular reactors
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Our factory has a tubular reactor, which is of the type with three tube banks; however, the number of tubes varies – 19, 27, and 19 respectively. Our reaction is an endothermic reaction. I asked the relevant personnel, but no one could explain the rationale behind this design. I would like to know whether this design for a tubular reactor complies with the relevant standards What’s wrong with it? I’m sorry, I’m not good at reaction kinetics.
Personally, I feel that designing such a reactor doesn’t necessarily require reaction kinetics, and it’s likely that the technology providers haven’t conducted any reaction kinetics studies either. I’m a bit puzzled by the uneven three-pass design in your factory. The flow rate entering section 2 needs to be reduced (the number of tubes increases), while that entering section 3 needs to increase; the reason for this is unknown. I have also worked with tubular reactors, but I have never seen ones with three tube passes. It is usually single-pipeline, from top to bottom, or from bottom to top. The number of pipes ranges from a few hundred to several thousand, with varying lengths. By the way, the length is related to the conversion rate of a single tube, as well as to the heat transfer outside the tube. Is it the case that in the first stage, not enough heat is absorbed, so heat needs to be absorbed again, which leads to entering the second stage once more. . . However, the heat transfer problem can also be solved using other methods.