Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
R EACTOR E NGINEERING
Volume 1 2003 Presentation P1
∗
Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, werther@tu-harburg.de
†
Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, Hartge@tu-harburg.de
ISSN 1542-6580
Copyright
2003
c by the authors.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, bepress, which has been given
certain exclusive rights by the author.
Modelling of Fluidized Bed Reactors
Joachim Werther and Ernst-Ulrich Hartge
Abstract
The fluidized bed reactor has a lot of advantages: excellent gas-solid con-
tacting, no hot spots even with highly exothermal reactions, good gas-to-particle
and bed-to-wall heat transfer and the ease of solids handling which is particularly
important if the catalyst is quickly ageing. However, the list of disadvantages is
as long: broad residence time distribution of the gas due to dispersion and gas-
bypass in the form of bubbles, broad residence time distribution of solids due to
intense mixing, erosion of bed internals and the attrition of the catalyst particles.
A particular disadvantage of the fluidized bed reactor is its difficult scale-up. The
historical experience with the FCC process is that in the early 40’s of the last cen-
tury this process was successfully scaled up from a 5 cm dia. pilot-scale unit to a
4.5 m dia. bed in the production unit. On the other hand, around 1950 the scale up
of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis in the fluidized bed failed completely. Modern
process design should be able to avoid such disasters by making use of modeling
and simulation tools. However, a modeling tool which is really helpful in planning
and designing of an industrial fluidized bed reactor has to fulfill a lot of require-
ments. It should be able to describe the influence of the several changes which
are typical for the scale-up process, for example enlargement of bed diameter, bed
height and fluidizing velocity, changes of gas distributor design, introduction of
in-bed heat exchanger tubes and baffles. In the present work a modelling approach
is presented which is able to handle the most important aspects of industrial flu-
idized bed reactors. A particular focus is to describe the relationship between
catalyst attrition, solids recovery in the reactor system and chemical performance
of the fluidized bed reactor. The competing influences of attrition of the catalyst
particles and efficiency of the solids recovery lead to the establishment of a cata-
lyst particle size distribution (PSD) in the bed inventory which in turn influences
via the hydrodynamic characteristics of the fluidized bed the performance of the
chemical reactor. The usefulness of this approach is illustrated with model cal-
culations for a fictituous first order reaction where the fluidized bed is equipped
with different solids recovery systems including one single stage cyclone, several
cyclones in parallel, two- and three-stage cyclone systems, respectively. Model
calculations illustrate the significance of a high efficiency of the solids recovery
in order to keep the fines in the system which is decisive for a high performance
of the reactor. The calculations reveal that it may take months until a quasi steady
state of the bed particle size distribution is obtained.
Modelling of
Industrial Fluidized Bed Reactors
Advantages Disadvantages
3
Bild
Bild
fluidized bed
bubbling bed
(reaction) return line
catalyst transport
bubble attrition (no reaction)
feed
distributor region
catalyst (reaction)
discharge jet attrition
gaseous reactant
Verfahrenstechnik I
Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg
Chemical Reaction Engineering IX, June 29 – July 4, 2003, Quebec City, Canada
http://www.bepress.com/ijcre/vol1/P1
Werther and Hartge: Modelling of Fluidized Bed Reactors 11
11
3.2 d0.33
t 0.05 ≤ dt ≤ 1m Geldart group A
ϑ= 0.5
2.0 dt 0.1 ≤ dt ≤ 1m Geldart group B
(dt = bed diameter)
Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg
Verfahrenstechnik I Chemical Reaction Engineering IX, June 29 – July 4, 2003, Quebec City, Canada
Published by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2003
16 International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering Vol. 1 [2003], Presentation P1
16
fluid mechanics
with Gsi,∞ = Ki* xi, xi = mass fraction of bed inventory in the ith size interval
(mean particle size dpi)
* u ti kg
2.5
elutration rate constant K i∞ = 14.5 ⋅ ρ g ⋅ u exp − 5.4 , 2
um s
(Geldart & Tasirin, 1998)
with uti = terminal velocity of particle dpi
matt,b/mb, 10 1/s
-8 2 3
12 Kb* = 4.32 10 s /m
-9
10
8
6
4
2
0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
excess gas velocity (u-umf), m/s
http://www.bepress.com/ijcre/vol1/P1
Werther and Hartge: Modelling of Fluidized Bed Reactors 21
21
KKj ==2.68·10-9-9s22/m22
2.68·10 s /m
j
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
bubble phase:
∂Cb ∂Cb
εb = - (u - umf (1- εb )) - kGa (Cb - Cd )
∂t ∂h
suspension phase
∂Cd ∂Cd
(1− εb ) (εmf + (1− εmf )εp ) = - umf (1− εb ) + kGa (Cb − Cd ) + (1− εb )(1- εmf ) ρskmCd
∂t ∂h
reaction
10 rc = K c ⋅ uc,2 in ⋅ µc−0,5
m& att,c = m
& c,in ⋅ rc
3
further investigations lead to 50 100 u 2c,in ⋅ µc−0,5 [m 2
s2 ] 1000
u 2c,in
& att ,c = C c ⋅ dpci ⋅ m
m & c ,in,i ⋅ Cj = material specific attrition constant
,i
µc
Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg
mass flow intoI cyclone
Verfahrenstechnik solids
Chemical Reaction Engineering IX, June 29 – Julyload
4, 2003,at cyclone
Quebec City, Canadainlet
Published by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2003
28 International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering Vol. 1 [2003], Presentation P1
28
refill of catalyst no
required?
yes
add fresh catalyst Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg
Verfahrenstechnik I Chemical Reaction Engineering IX, June 29 – July 4, 2003, Quebec City, Canada
http://www.bepress.com/ijcre/vol1/P1
Werther and Hartge: Modelling of Fluidized Bed Reactors 29
29
15000 1.0
0.6
14000
t=0 bed material
0.4
13500 t = 600 h
0.2
13000 0.0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
time, h particle size d, µm
100
0.01
80
bed
Sauter diameter, µm
mass flow, kg/s
1E-3
60
loss flux
1E-4 40 into cyclone
bubble attrition
cyclone attrition
1E-5 20
grid jet attrition
1E-6 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
time, h time, h
0.09 150
-1
specific mass transfer area, a, m
0.08
0.07
t = 600 h t=0
100
bubble size dv, m
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03 50
0.02 t=0
t = 600 h
0.01
0.00 0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
height h, m height h, m
1.0 1.0
0.9 X, t = 0
0.9 0.8
0.7
Cb/C0, Cd/C0, X
0.8 Cb/C0, t = 600 h
conversion X, -
0.6
X, t = 600 h
0.7 0.5
0.4
0.6 0.3
0.2 Cb/C0, t = 0
0.5 Cd/C0, t = 0
0.1 C d/C0, t = 600 h
0.4 0.0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
time, h height h, m
by screens
0.06
conversion X, -
0.6
0.05
0.5
0.04
0.4 t = 600 h without screens
0.03
t = 600 h with screens 0.3
0.02 0.2
0.01 t=0 0.1
0.00 0.0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
height h, m height h, m
reaction:
maleic anhydride from
C4-fraction of naphta
cracker (Mitsubishi
process)
dt = 0.45 m
u= 0.6 m/s
umf = 0.016 m/s
screen opening 0.04m
0.08
standard cyclone
80
0.07 standard cyclone, t = 600 h
high efficiency cyclone
Sauter diameter, µm
0.06
60
20 0.02
0.01 t=0
0 0.00
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
time, h height h, m
1.0
0.9 high efficiency cyclone, 0.01
t=0 loss standard cyc.
height h, m time, h
100 0.08
90 standard cyclone 0.07
t = 600 h, standard cyclone
80
0.06
Sauter diameter, µm
70
0 0.00
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
time, h height h, m
1.0
0.9
0.8 t = 600 h, 5 cyclones 0.01
0.7
t=0
standard cyclone
conversion X, -
2-stage
0.6
loss, kg/s
0.5 1E-3
0.4 t = 600 h, standard 2-stage
0.3 3-stage
1E-4
0.2
t = 600 h, 3-stage
0.1
0.0 1E-5
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
height h, m time, h
60 0.9
Sauter diameter, µm
conversion X, -
0.8
40 0.7
0.6
20
0.5
0 0.4
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 0 2000 4000 6000 8000
time, h time, h
reactor configurations
0.8
conversion after 1 year, -
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0 e
d
c.
p.
p.
ed
fle
n
ar
cy
se
se
lo
iz
nd
af
tim
yc
f.
e
b
a
ef
ag
ag
tic
st
op
w.
gh
st
st
ul
m
hi
ed
ne
c.
p.
p.
fle
cy
se
se
da
lo
iz
af
tim
yc
an
f.
e
.b
ef
ag
ag
tic
st
op
w
gh
st
st
ul
m
hi
1.0
3 stage separation
2 stage separation
high efficiency cyclone
3 stage separation
multi-cyclone
conversion, -
standard cyclone
0.6
50 60 70 80 90
Sauter diameter min bed, µm
Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg
Verfahrenstechnik I Chemical Reaction Engineering IX, June 29 – July 4, 2003, Quebec City, Canada
Published by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2003
46 International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering Vol. 1 [2003], Presentation P1
46
99
propylene conversion XA [%]
98
97
reaction:
96
propylene acrylonitrile
95
reactor dt = 0.5 m
94
u = 0.38 m/s
93
Ref.: M. Pell (1987)
20 25 30 35 40 45
wt.-%initial
wt.-% < 44fines
µm (<
fresh catalyst
44 µm)
Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg
Verfahrenstechnik I Chemical Reaction Engineering IX, June 29 – July 4, 2003, Quebec City, Canada
http://www.bepress.com/ijcre/vol1/P1
Werther and Hartge: Modelling of Fluidized Bed Reactors 47
47