International Conference on Engineering Education – ICEE 2007 Fixed-Bed Reactor Modeling and Simulation with e- Learning Tools

Abstract- Fixed-bed reactors (FBR) are largely used in industrial catalytic processes requiring a careful understanding at the undergraduate level of Chemical Engineering. Several mathematical models are available to represent the behavior of such heterogeneous systems with various degrees of complexity, including different transfer mechanisms at the fluid level or inside the catalyst particles. This will permit the application of the fundamental concepts of the transport mechanisms previously learned by the students in the first years of the course. One-dimension and two dimension models with or without dispersion effects in the axial and radial directions may lead to transient and steady state models, while the heterogeneity of the system can be simplified by assuming a pseudo-homogeneous behavior, whic