Characterization of a modular Temkin reactor with experiments and computational fluid dynamics simulations

[Display omitted] •A modular Temkin reactor is presented.•The flow is characterized with experiments and CFD simulations.•This reactor design behaves like a cascade of stirred tank reactors.•Mean age of air CFD simulations highlight potentials to re-design the modules. The determination of reaction kinetics without the influence of transport limitations is challenging, especially under industrially relevant conditions, particle shapes, and sizes. The Temkin reactor concept, developed in the 1960s, allows to measure reaction kinetics with a small number of unmodified catalyst particles operating under assumed isothermal and plug-flow conditions. In this study, a recently developed modular Temkin reactor design is studied experimentally and with detailed CFD simulations in order to shed light on the residence time distribution without reaction. Cold fluid volumetric flow rates are varied in the range of 50–200 mlNmin-1 and two different particle shapes (spheres and rings) are tested. Pulse experiments and passive scalar computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations verify that this reactor design behaves like a cascade of stirred tank reactors with Bodenstein numbers of each chamber smaller than three. Mean age of air CFD simulations highlight potentials to re-design the entrance of the chamber in order to minimize stagnation zones.