Maximum production rate optimization for sulphuric acid decomposition process in tubular plug-flow reactor

Chao Wang, Lingen Chen, Shaojun Xia and Fengrui Sun

Energy, 2016, vol. 99, issue C, 152-158

Abstract: A sulphuric acid decomposition process in a tubular plug-flow reactor with fixed inlet flow rate and completely controllable exterior wall temperature profile and reactants pressure profile is studied in this paper by using finite-time thermodynamics. The maximum production rate of the aimed product SO2 and the optimal exterior wall temperature profile and reactants pressure profile are obtained by using nonlinear programming method. Then the optimal reactor with the maximum production rate is compared with the reference reactor with linear exterior wall temperature profile and the optimal reactor with minimum entropy generation rate. The result shows that the production rate of SO2 of optimal reactor with the maximum production rate has an increase of more than 7%. The optimization of temperature profile has little influence on the production rate while the optimization of reactants pressure profile can significantly increase the production rate. The results obtained may provide some guidelines for the design of real tubular reactors.

Keywords: Tubular reactor; Sulphuric acid decomposition process; Production rate maximization; Nonlinear programming; Finite-time thermodynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:99:y:2016:i:c:p:152-158

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2016.01.040

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