EFFECT OF HYDRODYNAMICS OF RADIAL FLOW REACTOR ON REACTION PERFORMANCE USING CFD MODELING

Abstract

The current study involves three main phases: the first phase is to investigate the hydrodynamic behavior of flow of radial beds in the absence of chemical reactions. In this phase, all possible flow configurations were simulated and simulation results were validated against published experimental data. Axial pressure and velocity profiles resulted from simulation were used to investigate the axial flow distribution of gases along the bed height. The second phase of the research is to investigate the effect of hydrodynamics on reactor performance. Industrial radial flow bed reactor for LPG aromatization process was used as a case study. Finally, all configurations of radial flow reactor were simulated and compared together in order to find the configuration that has the most uniform axial flow distribution and hence the best performance.