Predictive Model for Particle Residence Time Distributions in Riser Reactors. Part 1: Model Development and Validation

In this computational study, we model the mixing of biomass pyrolysis vapor with a solid catalyst in circulating riser reactors with a focus on the determination of solid catalyst residence time distributions (RTDs). A comprehensive set of 2D and 3D simulations were conducted for a pilot-scale riser using the Eulerian–Eulerian two-fluid modeling framework with and without subgrid-scale models for the gas–solid interaction. A validation test case was also simulated and compared to experiments, showing agreement in the pressure gradient and RTD mean and spread. For simulation cases, it was found that for accurate RTD prediction, the Johnson and Jackson partial slip solid boundary condition was required for all models, and a subgrid model is useful so that ultra high resolutions grids, which are very computationally intensive, are not required. We discovered a 2/3 scaling relation for the RTD mean and spread when comparing resolved 2D simulations to validated unresolved 3D subgrid-scale model simulations.

[1]  P. A. Ambler,et al.  Residence time distribution of solids in a circulating fluidized bed: Experimental and modelling studies , 1990 .

[2]  Sankaran Sundaresan,et al.  Verification of filtered two‐fluid models for gas‐particle flows in risers , 2011 .

[3]  George M. Bollas,et al.  Modeling Small-Diameter FCC Riser Reactors. A Hydrodynamic and Kinetic Approach , 2002 .

[4]  Dimitri Gidaspow,et al.  Hydrodynamics of Fiuidizatlon and Heat Transfer: Supercomputer Modeling , 1986 .

[5]  Anthony D. Paris,et al.  Turbulence attenuation in a particle-laden channel flow , 2001 .

[6]  Asit Kumar Das,et al.  Three-Dimensional Simulation of a Fluid Catalytic Cracking Riser Reactor , 2003 .

[7]  R. Fox.  On multiphase turbulence models for collisional fluid–particle flows , 2014, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[8]  Tingwen Li,et al.  Revisiting Johnson and Jackson boundary conditions for granular flows , 2012 .

[9]  Tingwen Li,et al.  Evaluation of wall boundary condition parameters for gas-solids fluidized bed simulations , 2013 .

[10]  Leon R. Glicksman,et al.  Descent velocities of particle clusters at the wall of a circulating fluidized bed , 2000 .

[11]  Madhava Syamlal,et al.  MFIX documentation numerical technique , 1998 .

[12]  Xiaogang Shi,et al.  Solids Back-mixing Behavior and Effect of the Mesoscale Structure in CFB Risers , 2013 .

[13]  Milorad P. Dudukovic,et al.  Solids flow mapping in a gas–solid riser: Mean holdup and velocity fields , 2006 .

[14]  Olivier Simonin,et al.  Hydrodynamic and solid residence time distribution in a circulating fluidized bed: Experimental and 3D computational study , 2008 .

[15]  Mark R. Nimlos,et al.  Real-time monitoring of the deactivation of HZSM-5 during upgrading of pine pyrolysis vapors , 2014 .

[16]  P. Stair,et al.  An ultraviolet Raman spectroscopic study of coke formation in methanol to hydrocarbons conversion over zeolite H-MFI , 2003 .

[17]  F. L. Mendes,et al.  Production of lignocellulosic gasoline using fast pyrolysis of biomass and a conventional refining scheme , 2014 .

[18]  Kapil Agrawal,et al.  Filtered two‐fluid models of fluidized gas‐particle flows: New constitutive relations , 2013 .

[19]  S. Pannala,et al.  Open-source MFIX-DEM software for gas-solids flows: Part I – verification studies , 2012 .

[20]  S. Sundaresan,et al.  The role of meso-scale structures in rapid gas–solid flows , 2001, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[21]  Coke formation in high-silica zeolites , 1992 .

[22]  Yincheng Guo,et al.  Advanced model for turbulent gas–solid flow and reaction in FCC riser reactors , 1999 .

[23]  Madhava Syamlal,et al.  High performance computing: clean coal gasifier designs using hybrid parallelization , 2010 .

[24]  Jinyang Chen,et al.  Analysis of coke precursor on catalyst and study on regeneration of catalyst in upgrading of bio-oil , 2009 .

[25]  Rex B. Thorpe,et al.  Particle residence time distributions in circulating fluidised beds , 2003 .

[26]  S. Apte,et al.  Filtered particle tracking in isotropic turbulence and stochastic modeling of subgrid-scale dispersion , 2009 .

[27]  Sreekanth Pannala,et al.  Validation Studies on Filtered Model Equations for Gas-Particle Flows in Risers , 2012 .

[28]  Kai H. Luo,et al.  Two-dimensional and three-dimensional computational studies of hydrodynamics in the transition from bubbling to circulating fluidised bed , 2010 .

[29]  Eduardo F. D'Azevedo,et al.  Hybrid (OpenMP and MPI) parallelization of MFIX: a multiphase CFD code for modeling fluidized beds , 2003, SAC '03.

[30]  X. Pengfei,et al.  Simulation of cohesive particle motion in a sound-assisted fluidized bed , 2011 .

[31]  F. L. Resende.  Recent advances on fast hydropyrolysis of biomass , 2016 .

[32]  Olivier Desjardins,et al.  An Euler-Lagrange strategy for simulating particle-laden flows , 2013, J. Comput. Phys..

[33]  Jinghai Li,et al.  CFD simulation of solids residence time distribution in a CFB riser , 2014 .

[34]  Xin Sun,et al.  Filtered sub-grid constitutive models for fluidized gas-particle flows constructed from 3-D simulations , 2016 .

[35]  M. J. Rhodes,et al.  Effects of operating conditions on longitudinal solids mixing in a circulating fluidized bed riser , 1991 .

[36]  Madhava Syamlal,et al.  Study of the ability of multiphase continuum models to predict core-annulus flow† , 2007 .

[37]  Arthur T. Andrews,et al.  Filtered two‐fluid models for fluidized gas‐particle suspensions , 2008 .

[38]  M. Syamlal,et al.  MFIX documentation theory guide , 1993 .

[39]  K. N. Theologos,et al.  Advanced Modeling of Fluid Catalytic Cracking Riser-Type Reactors , 1993 .

[40]  J. R. Nunhez,et al.  CFD Study of Industrial FCC Risers: The Effect of Outlet Configurations on Hydrodynamics and Reactions , 2012 .

[41]  Maurizia Seggiani,et al.  Catalytic upgrading of pyrolytic oils to fuel over different zeolites , 1999 .

[42]  Schalk Cloete,et al.  Evaluation of a filtered model for the simulation of large scale bubbling and turbulent fluidized beds , 2013 .

[43]  Christian C. Milioli,et al.  Validation of filtered two-fluid models for gas–particle flows against experimental data from bubbling fluidized bed , 2015 .

[44]  Madhava Syamlal,et al.  Challenge problem: 1. Model validation of circulating fluidized beds , 2014 .

[45]  Yunming Fang,et al.  Coprocessing of Catalytic-Pyrolysis-Derived Bio-Oil with VGO in a Pilot-Scale FCC Riser , 2016 .

[46]  Jiang Li,et al.  Numerical simulation of the turbulent gas–solid flow and reaction in a polydisperse FCC riser reactor , 2013 .

[47]  Peter Arendt Jensen,et al.  A review of catalytic upgrading of bio-oil to engine fuels , 2011 .

[48]  R. Jackson,et al.  Frictional–collisional constitutive relations for granular materials, with application to plane shearing , 1987, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[49]  Arthur T. Andrews.  Filtered models for gas -particle flow hydrodynamics , 2007 .