Effects of particle shape and packing style on ethylene oxidation reaction using particle-resolved CFD simulation (Open Access)--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Shi, Y., Chen, H., Chen, W., Ye, G., Qu, J., Li, J., . . . Duan, X. (2023). Effects of particle shape and packing style on ethylene oxidation reaction using particle-resolved CFD simulation. Particuology, 82, 87-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2023.01.012

Effects of particle shape and packing style on ethylene oxidation reaction using particle-resolved CFD simulation (Open Access)

Yao Shi ^a, Hao Chen ^a, Wenyao Chen ^a, Guanghua Ye ^a, Jin Qu ^b, Jinbing Li ^b, Xinggui Zhou ^a *, Xuezhi Duan ^a *

a State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China
b Yanshan Branch of Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry, China Petroleum & Chemical Company (Sinopec Corp.), Beijing, 102500, China

10.1016/j.partic.2023.01.012

Volume 82, November 2023, Pages 87-97

Received 1 December 2022, Revised 10 January 2023, Accepted 24 January 2023, Available online 6 February 2023, Version of Record 10 February 2023.

E-mail: lijinbing.bjhy@sinopec.com, xzduan@ecust.edu.cn

Highlights

• Particle-resolved reactor model on ethylene oxidation is successfully established.

• Raschig ring packing structure exhibits excellent heat transfer capacity.

• Four-hole cylinder packing structure represents superior reaction performance.

• Changing the packing style could effectively lower reactor temperature rise by 4.8 K.

Abstract

Gaining in-depth insights into the effects of particle shapes and packing style on ethylene oxidation reaction is of paramount industrial importance. In this work, reactor models of five packing structures with different particle shapes and three packing structures with different packing styles are established by employing software Blender and COMSOL Multiphysics to explore how the reaction-diffusion behaviors affect ethylene oxidation process. The reliabilities of rigid body dynamics model and particle-resolved reactor model are verified by comparing simulated and experimental pressure drops and ethylene conversions. In all the five packing structures with laminar flow conditions, the high bed porosity and low total particle surface area for the trilobe packing structure give rise to the lowest pressure drop of 27.8 Pa/m, while the internal voids cutting mode provides the excellent heat transfer capacity for the Raschig ring packing structure and the highest ethylene conversion and thereby the highest bed temperature rise of 25.1 K for the four-hole cylinder packing structure. Based on these analyses, changing the packing style to the bottom-up Raschig ring - four hole cylinder packing structure would be a good strategy for the effectively lowered reactor temperature rise by 4.8 K together with the slightly reduced ethylene conversion.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Ethylene oxidation; Particle shape; Packing style; Heat transfer

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