Modeling of Ethylene-oxide Catalytic Reactor

A fixed-bed catalytic reactor to produce ethylene oxide by reacting ethylene and oxygen is modeled. Ethylene oxide and carbon dioxide (undesirable by-product) are produced when the reactants are passed over the catalyst. To model the reactor the mass and energy balance equations for the gas phase and the energy balance for the solid phase are used. By solving the dimensionless nonlinear partial differential equations good agreement between plant data and simulation results is observed.

Keywords:

ethylene oxide , catalytic reactor , modeling