Studies on the performance of a microscale trickle bed reactor using different sizes of diluent

The microscale trickle bed reactor can be used for testing commercial size catalyst, if its inherent limitations, such as channeling, wall effect, and backmixing, are overcome by diluting the catalyst bed with a nonporous inert particles of suitable size. The effect of diluent size on the performance of a microscale trickle bed reactor, catalyst bed height, as well as on operating liquid holdup at different liquid hourly space velocities, has been studied in the present investigation. The proper size of diluent, which may be used for testing as low as 5 mL of commercial catalyst iea microreactor, has been identified experimentally. The results on the hydrodesulfurization of atmospheric gas oil obtained in the microreactor, using the suitable size df diluent were compared with the data generated in a bench scale unit. The activation energy calculated from both microreactor and bench-scale reactor rate data was 21 and 25 kcal/mol, respectively.