Dynamic modelling of non-isothermal open-cell foam catalyst packings: selective sugar hydrogenation to sugar alcohols as a case study

A comprehensive multiphase model was developed for a trickle bed reactor with solid foam packings. Three-dimensional dynamic mass and energy balances in the three phases of heterogeneously catalysed reaction systems were implemented, and the mass and heat transfer resistances in the gas-liquid and liquid-solid phases and inside the pores of the catalyst were included in the model. Hydrogenation of arabinose and galactose mixtures on a ruthenium catalyst supported by carbon-coated aluminium foams was applied as an industrially relevant case study for the multiphase model. The kinetic parameters were estimated with confidence intervals within 10% error, indicating a good accuracy of the parameters, and the model results present a good adjustment to the experimental values. Finally, a sensitivity analysis on several model parameters demonstrated that the model could be applied to industrially sized reactors and various multiphase catalytic systems.