Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 1989, 54, 388-399
https://doi.org/10.1135/cccc19890388

Estimation of the catalyst pellet activity distribution from experimental kinetic data

Alena Brunovskáa, Bibiana Remiarováa and Carlo Lebrunb

a Department of Organic Technology, Slovak Institute of Technology, 812 37 Bratislava, Czechoslovakia
b Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale e Ingegneria Chimica, Politecnico di Milano, 201 33 Milano, Italia

Abstract

In this paper a method of catalyst pellet activity distribution estimation from experimental kinetic data is described. Measurements of outlet concentration from a laboratory continuous stirred single-pellet reactor vs feed rate for ethylene hydrogenation on Pt/alumina pellet are used as kinetic data. To find the best estimate the gradient method is employed and the gradient is computed with the help of the adjoint equation. The estimated activity distribution is compared with the Pt distribution obtained by the scanning electron microscope.