CPFD Software has been invited to speak at the 2022 European Refining Technology Conference taking place November 7-10, 2022 in Berlin, Germany. Peter Loezos, Vice President of Engineering, will speak on November 8th at 3:10 PM local, in the Chemical Recycling and Petrochemicals Stream, where he will be presenting on “New Vapor/Liquid/Solid simulation Capabilities for FCC Risers, Ebullated Beds and Chemical Recycling of Plastics”.
CPFD will also be exhibiting at ERTC at Booth 38.
Presentation Summary: New Vapor/Liquid/Solid simulation Capabilities for FCC Risers, Ebullated Beds and Chemical Recycling of Plastics
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling has been used to simulate FCC risers since the 2000s using various commercial CFD tools including Barracuda Virtual Reactor. Historically, for CFD modeling with reactions, the hydrocarbon feed to the riser is assumed to be instantly vaporized, or very simple approximations are made to close the mass balance between phases. However, the liquid injection, liquid penetration, spray angle, droplet size distribution, liquid-solid contact dynamics, vaporization, and gas-phase expansion are some of the important parameters that can only be captured if the feed is injected as liquid in the models. Therefore liquid feed injection, as opposed to injecting the feed in gas phase, is central to typical phenomena of interest for risers.
In this work we have extended the Virtual Reactor platform to include broader 3-phase flows for industrial units with gas, liquid and particle interactions. We demonstrate the new capabilities using an FCC riser for a US Gulf Coast refinery. The feed is injected as discrete liquid droplets with multiple components to capture the boiling point range. Part of the liquid feed directly vaporizes into the gas phase while some of the liquid forms a film on the catalyst particles as a result of contacts between droplets and particles. This film transfers to other particles and vaporizes into the gas-phase using the heat from both the gas and the particles. Multiple feeds can be simulated, including co-processing with biogenic feedstocks.
Broader applications for the new vapor/liquid/solid simulation capacities are then demonstrated for ebullated beds and chemical recycling of plastics. In cases where the carrier fluid is a liquid, such as in ebullated beds, the model is used to capture gas bubble and solid particle dynamics, multi-component vaporization, gas absorption, and multiphase reaction chemistry. Results from a full scale ebullated bed hydrocracker are shown, with comparisons made to available data. Chemical recycling of plastics applications for systems using fluidized beds of particles, with phase change associated with the plastics feed into the unit, are also discussed.
3 Key Takeaways
1. CFD modeling has been extended to include general vapor/liquid/solid phases
2. The capabilities are demonstrated using an FCC riser
3. Extensions to ebullated beds, chemical recycling of plastics and FCC co-processing with biogenic feedstocks are discussed
About Peter Loezos
Peter is VP Engineering at CPFD with 18 years’ experience in the development and commercialization of new processes for the refining and petrochemical industries. His previous experience includes technology development roles in ExxonMobil, SABIC and Lummus Technology where he had a specific emphasis on fluidization engineering. Peter has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University where his research included the development of CFD sub-grid models for gas-particle flow applications.