Dehydration of Methylbutenes to Isoprene. Part 3: Comparative Mathematical Analysis of Methylbutene Dehydrogenation in Axial and Radial Reactors

Abstract

A mathematical model of the process of dehydrogenation of methylbutenes to isoprene was used for comparative analysis of energetic efficiency of two versions of modernization: (1) a system of consecutively connected two axial reactors with a fixed catalyst beds, and (2) adiabatic radial reactor with fixed catalyst bed. The purpose was to determine the dependence of yield (Y) and selectivity (S) to the target product on the heat energy Q supplied with vapor. In the two-reactor system, the best parameters (Y = 53.1 % and S = 82.9 %) were achieved at Q = 9.0 MJ/kg and contact time t = 0.8 s. At the same time, in the radial reactor the best performance (Y = 42.0 % and S = 86.1 %) was observed at Q = 7.8 MJ/kg and t = 0.8 s. Hence, the radial reactor consumes less heat energy (by 13.0 %) than the radial reactor for methylbutene dehydrogenation.