A CFD modeling of the gas–solid two‐phase flow in an FCC riser under the electrostatic conditions

Abstract

ABSTRACTElectrostatics is an inevitable phenomenon in fluidization processes and granular flow, where collisions between particulates and walls with different materials occur. In this work, a two‐dimensional computational fluid dynamics model based on the Eulerian–Eulerian approach was applied and coupled with a first‐principles electrostatic model to describe the gas–solid two‐phase flow behavior in a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) riser reactor under the electrostatic conditions. The coupled model was used to predict the main gas–solid flow distribution parameters in the FCC riser, such as electric potential, particle volume fraction, gas‐phase temperature, and gas‐phase component fractions. The simulation results showed that the electrostatic had a significant influence on the particle distribution in the bottom dense region of the FCC riser, whereas it had a weak influence in the upper dilute region at the cold‐flow conditions. The simulation results also showed that the electrostatic had a weak influence on the particle concentration, gas‐phase temperature, and lump concentration distributions when the cracking reaction was considered. © 2014 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.