BENZENE CATALYTIC OXIDATION USING NANO-CUO/?-AL2O3 CATALYST IN FIXED BED REACTOR: MODELING, SIMULATION, AND EXPERIMENT

• Main Author: Adrian Rahardi, Ryan
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/33508
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Benzene is one of air pollutants which is classified as toxic, carcinogenic, and generally produced from the petrochemical industry. Catalytic oxidation is considered as the best method to convert benzene into unharmful substance. This research performed development of nano-based copper oxide catalysts and the operating methods of reverse flow reactor. This study aimed to investigate the performance of copper oxide catalysts that have been developed, to determine the kinetic parameters from the catalyst, and to do modeling and simulation of the reverse flow reactor. Activity test was performed nine nano-CuO/?-Al2O3 catalysts and one commercial catalyst from PTA industry. The experiment was performed with residence time of 0.24 s with 5,000 ppm benzene in air. The determination of benzene oxidation kinetic parameters was done by varying residence time and temperature. The kinetic equiation was based on power law model. The reverse flow operation simulation was conducted in one dimensional pseudohomogeneous model using FlexPDE V.06 software at switching time of 10, 30, and 60 minutes. The results of the activity test showed that nano-catalyst’s activity was lower than the commercial catalyst. Commercial catalysts could convert benzene 86% at temperature of 300oC, while nano-catalyst’s benzene conversion was in the range of 20-30%. The commercial catalyst had a reaction order to benzene of 1.5 and activation energy of 52 kJ/mol with Arrhenius constant of 2.1x106. Based on the simulation results, ST 60 minutes failed to trap the heat while ST 30 and 10 minutes could manage to trap the heat. Thirty minute switching time had longer time lag than 10 minutes. The simulations showed that the reverse flow reactor system was capable of maintaining the conversion and temperature despite disturbance of inlet concentration Keywords: benzene, catalytic oxidation, kinetics, copper metal catalyst, modeling and simulation, and reverse flow reactor