A CFD Modeling Approach to Design a New Gas Barrier in a Multizone Circulating Polymerization Reactor

Abstract

In this work, the CFD modeling approach, which is an old approach in chemical engineering, is extended to the propylene polymerization process in a multizone circulating reactor (MZCR) in order to design a new gas-barrier system in the MZCR from the fluid-dynamics viewpoint. First, the CFD modeling approach based on an Eulerian–Eulerian model, incorporating a kinetic theory of granular flow, is applied to describe the gas–solid flow in a polypropylene MZCR. Furthermore, the modeling approach is used to obtain important operation data of the gas-barrier inlet and to optimize the gas-barrier inlet configuration. Accordingly, the entire field in the MZCR with the optimal gas-barrier system above is predicted. The simulation results show that the four-way tangential gas-barrier configuration is suitable in the MZCR, which is the first use of a gas-barrier inlet that allows an optimal flow field in the MZCR. This article has reported an old approach in chemical engineering that has been applied to a new field for the purpose of designing a new gas barrier, which opens up a new research field in the olefin polymerization process.