Problem
A packed bed reactor was used for an exothermic 3-phase reaction. The reactor suffered from:

• Low productivity
• Thermal instability
• Poor catalyst lifetime
• Excessive waste production
• High running costs

Objective
Provide rapid consultancy during a short shut down period to improve reactor design. Recommendations had to be suitable for fitting during shut down.

Approach
The design of the reactor was studied based upon diagrams of the reactor and a statement of required operation.

Results
The main findings were that in the current reactor:

• Gas liquid contacting was poor
• Reactants were poorly distributed in the packed bed.

Modifications to the feed arrangement were proposed such that:

• Gas is pre-dispersed in the liquid using a static mixer
• Mass transfer rates are optimized
• Reactant distribution is improved

Benefits
Results were provided to the client 2 days after contact. The modifications were fitted to the reactor during down time and had the following effects:

• 37% increase in productivity
• Removal of instabilities
• Reduction in required catalyst loading and significant increase in catalyst lifetime
• Reduction in waste
• $1.5 million saving over 5 years

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