Hydrodynamic Studies of Three-Phase Fluidized Bed by CFD Analysis

Hara Mohan Jena and Sambhurisha Mishra Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India. Email: hmjena@nitrkl.ac.in ABSTRACT: Gas-liquid-solid fluidization also known as three-phase fluidization is a subject of fundamental research since the last four decades due to its industrial importance. Three-phase fluidized beds have been applied successfully to many industrial processes such as in the H-oil process for hydrogenation and hydrodesulfurization of residual oil, the H-coal process for coal liquefaction, Fischer-Tropsch process, and the bio-oxidation process for wastewater treatment. Three-phase fluidized beds are also often used in physical operations. The cocurrent gas-liquid flow in the three-phase fluidized bed with liquid continuous and gas in dispersed state is quite significant compared to other types. The co-current gas-liquid-solid fluidization is defined as an operation in which a bed of solid particles is suspended in upward flowing gas and/or liquid media. Such an operation generates considerable intimate contact among the gas, liquid and solid particles in the system and provides substantial advantages for applications in physical, chemical or biochemical processing (Fan; 1989). The successful design and operation of a gas-liquid-solid fluidized bed system depends on the ability to accurately predict the fundamental hydrodynamic characteristics. The design of three-phase fluidized beds is usually done using correlations available for hydrodynamic characteristics. The complex hydrodynamics of these systems are not well understood due to complicated phenomena. CFD simulation of hydrodynamics of gas-liquidsolid fluidized bed has been carried out for 2.18 mm particle sizes with varying liquid and gas velocities by employing the Eulerian-Eulerian granular multi-phase approach. The CFD simulation result shows good agreement with experimental data for the hydrodynamics in term of expanded bed height (bed voidage) and gas hold up. The bed expansion value indicates that the drag model used in CFD simulation satisfactorily describes the three-phase (gas-liquidsolid) phenomena.

4 3.5 3 B ed 2.5 expa ion 2 ns 1.5 ra tio 1 0.5 0

Bed expansion ratio at air velocity 0.02123 m/s

ex p

0.1 Wa Veloc (m/s ter ity )

0.2

It can be seen clearly from the comparison of experimental and simulated results that Eulerian-Eulerian multi-phase granular flow approach is capable of predicting the overall bed expansion behaviors and gas hold up of gas-liquidsolid fluidized bed. KEYWORDS: CFD, fluidization, hydrodynamic.