MODELING AND SENSITIVITY ANALYSES OF HYDRODESULFURIZATION CATALYST PELLET

Catalyst pellets are one of the most important factors in catalytic reactor design. In this research a single catalyst pellet of hydrodesulfurization reaction have been investigated. The governing mass and energy balance equations have been solved numerically under steady state and dynamic conditions aiming to find the concentration and temperature profiles of the pelet. In order to consider the mass diffusion effect, the effectiveness factor η was introduced and solved at steady state mode.Sensitivity analysis with respect to the pellet surface conditions was studied in detail. Results showed that the effectiveness factor increases with surface concentration while it decreases as surface temperature increases. The Catalyst pellet was very sensitive to initial condition It was observed that decreasing the inlet concentration would increase the dimensionless concentration whereas the inlet concentration leads to a higher temperature.