Core-shell equivalent reactor network model to bridging CFD and process simulations of a fluidized bed reactor

Abstract

Equivalent reactor network (ERN) is expected to narrow the gap between the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and process simulations of a fluidized bed reactor (FBR). In view of this, a novel CFD-based core–shell ERN framework is proposed, where the core compartment is represented by a variable cross-section PFR (vPFR) and shell zones are simulated by CSTRs. The CFD simulation indicates that the gas phase flow in a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) FBR deviates significantly from the ideal plug-flow. The developed core–shell ERN is reliable to reproduce the non-ideal flow. With the process model integrating the core–shell ERN, the PDH reactor performance and process efficiency are evaluated. Process defects are found mainly in the heat exchange section because of the largest lost work (i.e., 45.34 %) and lowest second-law efficiency (i.e., 20.75 %). Overall, the core–shell ERN is capable of bridging CFD and process simulations of an FBR and detecting process weakness.