The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	The optimization of a catalytic methanol reactor using quench feed
Author:	McBurney, John Paul
View Online:	njit-etd1970-027 ([vi], 78 pages ~ 2.1 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Chemical Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Hanesian, Deran (Committee chair) Joffe, Joseph (Committee member) Kreps, Saul I. (Committee member)
Date:	1970-05
Keywords:	Chemical reactors Methanol
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	The production of methanol in a catalytic quench feed reactor is studied by means of a computerized model and optimized in terms of total reactor length necessary to achieve a given production rate. The methanol reaction rate can be maximized in a quench reactor through the use of cold stream feeds along the length of reactor. Since the methanol reaction temperature is restricted to an upper limit of 405°C, the addition of cold stream feed along the adiabatic reactor enables the desired conversion to be reached. For two given levels of conversion, 12% and 15%, an optimum inlet temperature, quench temperature, and quench feed fraction is found.