Conditions of dead zone forming in porous catalyst pellets

In the present work the results of the investigations on dead zone formation conditions in catalyst pellet are discussed. A new, simple method of determining the types of kinetic equations for which such a zone can appear was developed on the basis of simple mathematical transformations. It was shown that: (i) pellet geometry has no influence on necessary conditions of the origination of dead zone (ii) only driving-force term (in the sense of Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson kinetic approach) decides if a dead zone is formed. A new algorithm which allows fast and precise evaluation of critical Thiele modulus Fcrit (in a catalyst pellet for F>Fcrit the dead zone appears) was proposed and tested.