CFD MODELING OF TEMPERATURE, REACTION AND CONCENTRATION PROFILES IN HTWGS INDUSTRIAL REACTOR

This paper is concerned to modeling an industrial High Temperature water Gas shift Fixed bed reactor. The gas flow through packed beds is treated as flow through a porous medium. The resistance flow due to the presence of the porous medium is represented by an additional momentum sink in the Navier–Stokes equations. The material properties for the fluid and porous medium (porosity, viscous and inertial resistance) can be specified. The effects of inlet velocity and porous medium properties on pressure drop across the porous insert can be studied. Mass flow rate, total pressure drop, pressure drop in porous zone, temperature and concentration profile and cross-sectional averaged velocity at the center of the porous insert are reported. Velocity vectors, pressure and temperature contours, and streamlines can be displayed.The kinetics of the high-temperature, low and high-pressure gas-phase water-gas shift reaction were evaluated in an industrial reactor. The power law expression for the reaction rate was consistent with the Bradford mechanism and was invariant with respect to pressure. The Arrhenius expressions for the reaction rate constant corresponding to the reactor were in very good agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords:

CFD , Water-Gas Shift Reactor , Porous media , Heat transfer