A Preliminary Assessment of Sorption Enhanced Methanol Synthesis in a Fluidized Bed Reactor with Selective Addition/Removal of the Sorbent

Abstract

Methanol synthesis from CO2 can be made in the presence of a sorbent to increase the achievable yield. If the fresh sorbent is continuously fed to a fluidized bed and separated from the catalyst bed by segregation, a steady state operation could be achieved. The objective of the present work is to provide insight on the suitable operating conditions for such a fluidized bed reactor system.  We have studied the fluid dynamics and segregation of the catalyst-sorbent binary mixtures, the most critical point in the development of this proof of concept. A good bed segregation, with a mixing index of 0.31, has been achieved. Continuous feeding and removal of sorbent with low loss of catalyst was observed. Reactor simulations provided promising results, indicating that the addition of sorbent considerably improves the methanol yield under some operating conditions.

Keywords: SER, fluidization, segregation, CO2 uses, methanol synthesis, sorbent