Interactions of multiphase hydrodynamics, droplet evaporation, and chemical kinetics in FCC riser reactors.

Conference · Tue Feb 17 04:00:00 EST 1998

OSTI ID:10644

Chang, S L

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computer code, ICRKFLO, has been developed for flow simulation of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) riser reactors, which convert crude oil into gasoline and other valuable products. The FCC flow, especially in the entry region, is a three-phase reacting flow including hot catalyst particles, inert lift gas, and feed oil droplets. The impact of the hydrodynamics processes of heat transfer, droplet evaporation, and mixing on the chemical kinetics or riser performance can be significant. ICRKFLO was used to evaluate the impact of these processes on the performance of an advanced FCC unit. The code solves for major flow properties of all three phases in an FCC riser, with models governing the transport of catalyst particles and feed oil droplet, the vaporization of the feed oil droplets, the cracking of the oil vapor, and the formation and deposition of coke on particles. First, the code was validated against available test data of a pilot-scale FCC unit. Then, flow calculations for the FCC unit were performed. Computational results indicate that the heat transfer and droplet vaporization processes have a significant impact on the performance of a pilot-scale FCC unit. The impact is expected to be even greater on commercial scale units.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 10644
• Report Number(s): ANL/ES/CP-95641
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
CATALYSTS
CATALYTIC CRACKING
COMPUTER CODES
EVAPORATION
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRODYNAMICS
KINETICS
PETROLEUM
SIMULATION