Pattern formation in catalytic reactors: The role of fluid mixing

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Abstract
Fluid‐mediated interaction between catalyst particles alone is shown to yield several interesting and significant phenomena in a catalytic reactor that have been generally attributed in the past to direct interaction between particles. Thus, collaborative interaction between particles and the fluid may enhance or abate steady‐state multiplicity, and reverse stability behavior. From the simple setting of a population of particles in a well‐mixed CSTR, it is shown that the catalyst phase in a catalytic reactor is susceptible to very fine pattern formation in the face of steady‐state multiplicity in single particles, which negates the usual assumption that particles exposed to a given fluid have identical states. In a reactor such variability in behavior must be accompanied by a corresponding variability in conversion and selectivity (in multireaction systems) and may have strong implications for reactor control strategies.