CFD modeling using heterogeneous reaction kinetics for catalytic dehydrogenation syngas reactions in a fixed-bed reactor

Abstract

A comprehensive 2D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to simulate the flow behavior and catalytic dehydrogenation reaction of syngas in a heterogenous fixed-bed reactor (FBR). The model combined the porous medium CFD model with a reaction kinetics model. To acquire an accurate reaction kinetics model, a comprehensive reaction mechanism was studied for the heterogeneous catalytic dehydrogenation reaction of syngas over a supported metal catalyst. Based on the reaction mechanism and a statistical test, a reliable kinetics model was proposed. The CFD model combined with the above kinetics model was validated with one set of experimental data. The CFD model was also used to predict key reaction variable distributions such as the temperature and the component concentrations in the reactor.