Generic Mathematical Model of the Hydrotreating Diesel Fuel Reactor

Abstract

This article provides a mathematical model of mass transfer taking place in the active zone of the diesel fuel hydrotreating reactor. It provides an additional insight into behaviour of physico-chemical process as the mathematical apparatus which was used to write this model completely interprets all subtleties of the proceeding process. Also it describes the necessity of combining thermal conductivity and diffusion equations into one model to ensure the most exact calculations of the heat-producing system and to form key parameters controlling system of the installation based on this model. In addition, the research considers analogy between process of filtering and process of efflux of diesel fuel through the layer of porous catalyst. Also, remember, that the medium consisting of mutually soluble chemically active components is exposed to filtering. The difference of homogeneous media from the complex heterogeneous substance considered in this case is in the presence of numerous interphase boundaries at the microlevel. At the same time each constituent phase occupies only a part of elementary volume of the saturated porous medium. Thus, in this paper the process of diesel fuel hydrotreating is considered as a combination of mass-exchanging, thermodynamic and filtrational processes. The cause of this point is that nowadays in literature the hydrotreating process is described mostly as heat-exchange, and the mass exchange is reported in the field of physical chemistry to describe the process kinetics. The article provides an addition to the existing diesel fuel hydrotreating reactor model that represents the description of thermal processes occurring in the active zone of the reactor [1]. This scientific research will help further understand problems of control of the object key parameters in detail [2], and further - to improve the process by transforming its mathematical description.