Micro-fluidized bed reactor: gas phase hydrodynamics simulation

Fluidized bed reactors are related to different industrial applications such as petroleum process, synthesis of chemicals, waste treatment and coating of solid particles. Engineers select fluidized beds for catalytic reaction that are highly exothermic, endothermic or explosive. Scale up and back mixing of the gas are the main challenge of this type of reactor. Residence time distribution (RTD) analysis is a technique that allows to understand the behavior of the gas phase inside the catalytic bed and thus making the kinetic modeling as well as the scale up possible. This project focus on RTD analysis in an 8 mm internal diameter micro reactor with two different catalysts (sand and FCC). The first part of this studied consisted to analyze the behavior of the gas phase with tests in the laboratory. Then, two different computational simulations will be performed. Experimental data will be inserted in the simulation to confirm the veracity of the analysis.

Faculty Supervisor:

Gregory Scott Patience;Bruno Blais

Student:

Partner:

University of Cambridge

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

Polytechnique Montréal

Program: