Counter-current three-phase fluidization in a turbulent contact absorber: A CFD simulation

Abstract

A computational fluid dynamics study of three-phase counter-current fluidization occurring in a turbulent contact absorber was performed. A two-dimensional, transient Eulerian multi-fluid model was used, in which the dispersed solid phase was modeled employing a kinetic theory of granular flow. The grid independence of the model, the effect of wall boundary conditions, the choice of granular temperature model, the effects of order of discretization scheme and drag models were studied for a base case setting. The results of simulations were validated against experimental results obtained from the literature. Once the model settings were finalized, simulations were performed for different gas and liquid velocities to predict the hydrodynamics of the absorber. Computed bed expansion and pressure drop were compared with experimental data. Good agreement between the two was found for low velocities of gas and liquid.