Temperature and conversion patterns in a network of catalytic reactors for methanol synthesis with different switch strategies

A network of connected catalyticreactorswithperiodicallyswitchedinletandoutletsectionsis numericallystudiedforreversibleexothermicreactions.Themethanolsynthesisisselectedas representativeprocessexampleandtwodifferentswitchstrategiesarecomparedwiththeobjectiveof overcomingtheconversionlimitsimposedbythermodynamicequilibrium.Thefirststrategy,whichis the mostconsideredinliterature,consistsofperiodicallyswitchingthefeedtothesecondreactorofthe currentreactorsequencewhilethesecondstrategyisimplementedbyperiodicallyswitchingthefeed to thelastreactorofthecurrentsequence.Periodicregimescorrespondingtosinglesquare-like temperaturewavestravellingoverthecatalyticbedandcharacterizedbycomparablemethanol conversionvaluesaredetectedforboththeconsideredstrategies.Theseregimesexhibit,however,a significantlylargerdomainofexistenceforthesecondstrategy.Moreover,thesecondstrategygivesrise to otherperiodicregimescorrespondingtospatiotemporaltemperaturepatternscharacterizedby differentspatialandtemporalperiodicity.Thesepatternsariseintheformoftemperaturewavetrains and ensuremethanolconversionvaluessignificantlylargerthanthosefoundunderperiodicregimes characterizedbysingletemperaturewaves.