Modeling and analysis of oxidation reactor of ethylene coupled mass-transfer and reaction

A mathematic model coupled mass-transfer and reaction to match bubble column reactor with outside circulation for liquid-phase catalytic oxidation of ethylene was established. The Gear algorithm was adopted because the model was a kind of stiff ordinary differential equations. A parameter of heat loss ratio was used to correct the model, and the calculated value was in accordance with the industrial data, especially the calculated value of mole flow rate of water in vapor phase was more precise. The results show that the fractional conversion of ethylene increases with increasing pH, the mole concentration of Pd and recycle flow rate, but the fractional conversion of ethylene decreases with increasing the mole concentration of total copper. The model and its results may act as a useful guide to industrial process revamping of acetaldehyde.