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Abstract
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In this study, a novel plate methanol reactor (shell and plate) with a higher heat transfer rate compared to the conventional
counterparts (shell and tube) was investigated. In fact, in the new configuration, all of the tubes were replaced with plates,
and thereby the heat transfer area increased. To compare the two configurations (the conventional reactor (CR) and the plate
reactor (PLR)), a two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed. To draw a more meaningful
comparison, an equal amount of catalyst was considered for both configurations. The modeling results were also compared
with available industrial data, illustrating a good agreement. Results also showed that the main superiority of the obtained
temperature of reactant gas and coolant gas in PLR, respectively, was 13 °C more and 9 °C less than CR. This result implies
that the increase in the surface area in PLR can increase the heat transfer rate, and thereby increasing the methanol production.
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