2. Principle of industrial reactor design

2.1 Defining the objective

The purpose of calculating a sulphur dioxide (or sulphur dioxide) conversion reactor is to define the optimum adiabatic path to minimize the amount of catalyst to be used for an industrial gas of given initial composition and for a given target conversion rate.

Any gain in catalyst quantity translates into a gain in capital expenditure and/or energy consumption.

Conversely, a limited increase in the amount of catalyst, without increasing the number of beds, can deliver an appreciable gain in SO ₂ conversion rate.

To fix orders of magnitude, let's specify that :

• 1% conversion rate corresponds to...