CFD code development for performance evaluation of a pilot-scale FCC riser reactor
Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) is an important conversion process for the refining industry. The improvement of FCC technology could have a great impact on the public in general by lowering the cost of transportation fuel. A recent review of the FCC technology development by Bienstock et al. of Exxon indicated that the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation can be very effective in the advancement of the technology. Theologos and Markatos used a commercial CFD code to model an FCC riser reactor. National Laboratories of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have accumulated immense CFD expertise over the years for various engineering applications. A recent DOE survey showed that National Laboratories are using their CFD expertise to help the refinery industry improve the FCC technology under DOE`s Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). Among them are Los Alamos National Laboratory with Exxon and Amoco and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) with Chevron and UOP. This abstract briefly describes the current status of ANL`s work. The objectives of the ANL CRADA work are (1) to use a CFD code to simulate FCC riser reactor flow and (2) to evaluate the impacts of operating conditions and design parameters on the product yields. The CFD code used in this work was originally developed for spray combustion simulation in early 1980 at Argonne. It has been successfully applied to diagnosing a number of multi-phase reacting flow problems in a magneto-hydrodynamic power train. A new version of the CFD code developed for the simulation of the FCC riser flow is called Integral CRacKing FLOw (ICRKFLO). The CFD code solves conservation equations of general flow properties for three phases: gaseous species, liquid droplets, and solid particles. General conservation laws are used in conjunction with rate equations governing the mass, momentum, enthalpy, and species for a multi-phase flow with gas species, liquid droplets, and solid particles.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 561155
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ES/CP-94706; CONF-971115-; ON: DE98001324; CRN: C/ANL--9403901; TRN: 98:000190
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International mechanical engineering congress and exposition, Dallas, TX (United States), 16-21 Nov 1997; Other Information: PBD: Sep 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
A numerical study of short residence time FCC riser flows with a new flow/kinetics modeling technique.
Computer simulation of FCC riser reactors.