Sequential-based process modelling of a circulating fluidized bed reactor

Abstract Process simulation is an inevitable step in designing chemical plants. While equation oriented approaches suffer from the mathematical complexity, demanding extensive time and computational effort, the sequential approach provides a simple and user-friendly infrastructure in which a sophisticated chemical unit is wisely segmented into sequences of well-known unit operations. In this study, the sequential modular model is introduced to simulate a circulating fluidized bed reactor by integrating the kinetic and hydrodynamic sub-models into logically-ordered ideal chemical reactors through subroutines. The predictions of the proposed model well represent the experimental data reported in literature. Flexibility and performance of our model provides a reliable tool for predicting the behaviour of the complex non-ideal reactor. The proposed simulation model can be implemented in the industrial process simulators such as Aspen Plus© and Aspen HYSYS© in order to simulate the behaviour of the multiphase reactors.