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Numerical investigation of flow and heat transfer in a novel configuration multi-tubular fixed bed reactor for propylene to acrolein process

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Abstract

In the present contribution, a numerical study of fluid flow and heat transfer performance in a pilot-scale multi-tubular fixed bed reactor for propylene to acrolein oxidation reaction is presented using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. Firstly, a two-dimensional CFD model is developed to simulate flow behaviors, catalytic oxidation reaction, heat and mass transfer adopting porous medium model on tube side to achieve the temperature distribution and investigate the effect of operation parameters on hot spot temperature. Secondly, based on the conclusions of tube-side, a novel configuration multi-tubular fixed-bed reactor comprising 790 tubes design with disk-and-doughnut baffles is proposed by comparing with segmental baffles reactor and their performance of fluid flow and heat transfer is analyzed to ensure the uniformity condition using molten salt as heat carrier medium on shell-side by three-dimensional CFD method. The results reveal that comprehensive performance of the reactor with disk-and-doughnut baffles is better than that of with segmental baffles. Finally, the effects of operating conditions to control the hot spots are investigated. The results show that the flow velocity range about 0.65 m/s is applicable and the co-current cooling system flow direction is better than counter-current flow to control the hottest temperature.

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Abbreviations

A:

Pre-exponential factor (kmol/kg h)

A i :

Inner heat transfer area per unit length (m2)

A m :

Arithmetic mean value of heat transfer area (m2)

A o :

Outer heat transfer area per unit length (m2)

B:

Wall thickness (m)

C2 :

Inertial resistance (m−1)

C j,r :

Molar concentration of species j in the reaction r (kmol/m3)

c p :

Heat capacity at constant pressure (J/kg K)

dp :

Catalyst particle diameter (m)

D i,m :

Total diffusion coefficient for species i in gas mixture (m2/s)

d:

Tube inner diameter (m)

D:

Tube outer diameter (m)

E :

Activation energy (J/kmol)

E g :

Total energy (kg m2/s2)

g:

Gravitational acceleration (m/s2)

G :

Entropy (J/kmol K)

h i :

Species enthalpy of formation (J/kmol)

h v :

Heat transfer coefficient between gas and solid phases (W/m3 K)

H :

Enthalpy (J/kmol)

H(T′):

Enthalpy at temperature T′ (the increased temperature due to releasing heat of reaction) (J/kmol)

H(T):

Enthalpy at temperature T (the desired temperature for reaction) (J/kmol)

\(\overline{\overline{I}}\) :

Identity matrix

\(\overrightarrow {J}\) :

Diffusion flux

M m :

Molecular weight of gas mixture (kg/kmol)

M ω,i :

Molecular weight of species i (kg/kmol)

N r :

Number of chemical species in the system

Nu v :

Nusselt number

p:

Pressure (Pa)

ΔP:

Pressure drop of shell-side (Pa)

Pr:

Prandtl number

q:

Heat flux (W/m2)

R:

Universal gas constant (kJ/kmol K)

Ri :

Reaction rate (kg/m3 s)

Re :

Reynolds number

Re D :

Reynolds number outside the tube

S :

Momentum source term

Sc t :

Schmidt number

S h f :

Fluid enthalpy source term

T:

Temperature (K)

ΔT:

Temperature difference between shell-side inlet and outlet (K)

v:

Physical velocity vector (m/s)

vT :

Transpose of velocity vector (m/s)

Y:

Mass fraction

α c :

Molten salt side heat transfer at walls (W/m2 K)

α g :

Fluid side heat transfer at walls (W/m2 K)

ɛ :

Turbulent kinetic energy dissipation (m2/s3)

\(\eta_{j,r}^{'}\) :

Rate exponent for reactant species j in the reaction r

\(\eta_{j,r}^{{\prime \prime }}\) :

Rate exponent for product species j in the reaction r

\(\overline{\overline{\tau }}\) :

Shear stress of gas phase (Pa)

κ :

Thermal conductivity (W/m K)

κ eff :

Effective thermal conductivity of the medium

κ f,r :

Forward rate constant for reaction r, units vary

κ g,c :

Total heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)

λ :

Thermal conductivity of steel (W/m K)

μ :

Viscosity (Pa s)

μ t :

Turbulent viscosity (Pa s)

\(\tilde{v}\) :

Turbulent kinematic viscosity (m2/s)

\(v_{i,r}^{{\prime }}\) :

Stoichiometric coefficient for reactant i in the reaction r

\(v_{i,r}^{{\prime \prime }}\) :

Stoichiometric coefficient for product i in the reaction r

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

ρ b :

Bulk density of bed (kg/m3)

φ :

Medium porosity

ϕ :

Dissipation function

ω :

Permeability (m2)

c:

Molten salt

g:

Gas mixture

i :

Species number

j :

Second species number

m:

Gas mixture

ref :

Reference

s :

Solid phase

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported financially by the Program for Chang Jiang Scholars and Innovative Research Terms in Universities (No. IRT0936) and National Basic Research Program of China (Nos. 2009CB219905 and 2009CB219907).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, People’s Republic of China

    Bin Jiang, Li Hao, Luhong Zhang, Yongli Sun & Xiaoming Xiao

  2. National Engineering Research Center of Distillation Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China

    Bin Jiang

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  1. Bin Jiang
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  2. Li Hao
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Correspondence to Luhong Zhang.

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Jiang, B., Hao, L., Zhang, L. et al. Numerical investigation of flow and heat transfer in a novel configuration multi-tubular fixed bed reactor for propylene to acrolein process. Heat Mass Transfer 51, 67–84 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-014-1384-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-014-1384-3

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