The conical fluidized bed reactor is a cutting-edge and adaptable technology used in diverse industries for a wide range of operations, including chemical synthesis and environmental remediation. This reactor type offers several significant advantages due to its conical shape. The shape of the system facilitates improved blending and movement of particles, guaranteeing even dispersion of heat and substances across the entire bed. This leads to effective mass and heat transport, which promotes fast and even reactions.

This project simulates a conical fluidized bed in which coke and TiO2 participates using ANSYS Fluent software. To take proper considerations, a reference paper entitled “CFD simulations of particle mixing in a binary fluidized bed” is utilized.

Simulation Process

The geometry is design in Design Modeler software regarding suitable blocking in order to perform an structured grid over the domain. As a result, X quadrilateral elements are generated in ANSYS Meshing.

The solver requires specific settings to attain a correct simulation of conical fluidized bed. There are actually two granular materials, including TiO2 and Coke. Thus, Eulerian multiphase model is employed. It is essential to select appropriate granular properties for each of the phases. It should be noted that coke particles are much bigger than TiO2 in size. Thus, the phase pairs are very important.

Post-Processing

The reactor’s conical design permitted excellent fluidization of the solid particles, resulting in uniform distribution of TiO2 and Coke throughout the bed. This resulted in improved mixing and contact between solid particles and the gas phase, which is critical for catalytic and chemical reactions. The detailed analysis of the simulation data revealed important insights into the complicated interplay between solid particles and the gas phase, offering light on the fundamental processes that occur within the conical fluidized bed reactor. Hopefully, a perfect visualization is done by extracting an animation. However, at a specific time, the mass fraction of each phase is shown: