Analytical and numerical methods for solving catalytic reaction and transport problems for porous pellets and membrane reactors with controlled catalyst activity

Faculty Development Competitive Research Grant Program 2021-2023

The optimal control methods for reaction processes in catalyst pellet and catalytic membrane reactor will be developed in the present project. The desired target function will be optimized using the combination of the catalyst activity distribution, forced deactivation/activation of catalyst sites located on the inner surface of the porous granules, and forced temporal variation of process parameters. Furthermore, the study of dead-zone phenomena will be carried out for multi-component and multi-pathway reactions to optimize the use of catalysts by avoiding formation of dead-zones. The analytical and numerical methods will be developed for solving the steady-state and non-steady-state reaction-diffusion-convection problems with and without dead zones. The case studies will be performed for catalytic reactions with different kinetics in the pellets and membranes with controlled catalyst activity.