Abstract:
The study of chemical heat pump employs the reversible chemical reaction to improve the efficiency of the waste heat utilization. Isopropanol/Acetone/Hydrogen chemical heat pump system is a system that retrieves energy from the low grade waste heat (about 80 - 90oC) and converts to the higher grade heat (about 200oC) via dehydrogenation and hydrogenation reactions, respectively. In dehydrogenation reaction zone, the endothermic reaction occurs and the low grade heat is consumed. The conversion at 80oC under equilibrium condition in this zone was very low approximately 10 percent. To increase this value the separation of the reactant and products would help the reaction moving forward and increase the conversion of the reaction. In this work, the kinetic of dehydrogenation reaction with Raney nickel for a reactive distillation was investigated. At 80, 70 and 60 oC, the rate constants are 0.72E+8, 4.01E+8 and 1.58E+8 mol/g.cat/min respectively. This activation energies are 83,097 81,194 and 78,193 J/mol with acetone equilibrium adsorption constants of 1.48E+15, 4.06E+19 and 1.80E+21 mol/g.cat/min. The heat of acetone adsorptions are -130,405 -126,489 and -92,335 J/mol respectively. The effects of various design parameters were investigated and expressed in terms of efficiencies such as COP, ƞ and G* using ASPEN plus simulator. From the simulation, the reactive distillation can increase dehydrogenation conversion from 10% to 28% and it could improve percent conversion if the proper design is conducted. Furthermore, it was found that inlet pressure of hydrogenation reactor has high impact on the system efficiency.