Heterogeneous Gas Chemistry in the CPFD Eulerian–Lagrangian Numerical Scheme (Ozone Decomposition)

Authors: Dale Snider ^a, and Sibashis Banerjee ^b
;^a CPFD Software, 10899 Montgomery NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111, United States
^b Cristal Global, 6752 Baymeadow Drive, Glen Burnie, MD 21060, United States

Source: Snider, D.; Banerjee, S. Heterogeneous Gas Chemistry in the CPFD Eulerian–Lagrangian Numerical Scheme (Ozone Decomposition). Powder Technology 2010, 199 (1), 100–106.

Abstract: Heterogeneous catalytic chemistry is used throughout the chemical and petro-chemical industry. In predicting the performance of a reactor, knowing the gases and solids flow dynamics is as important as having good chemical rate expressions. This paper gives the solution of ozone decomposition in a bubbling bed using the CPFD numerical scheme which is a Eulerian–Lagrangian solution method for fluid–solid flows. The ozone decomposition can be described by a single stoichiometric equation and has a first order reaction rate. The ozone decomposition is a standard problem for chemical analysis and has been used to characterize gas–solid contacts in fluidized beds. The accuracy of predicting the ozone decomposition comes from correctly predicting the bed dynamics. The solution in this study is three-dimensional and predicts the coupled motion of both solids and gas. The chemical rate equation uses solids volume fraction, but the numerical method could calculate chemistry on the discrete catalyst, including a variation in size (surface area) if such a rate equation was available. The numerical results compare well with an analytic solution of the decomposition rate, and calculated results compare well with the experiment by Fryer and Potter [Fryer, C. and Potter, O.E, (1976), “Experimental investigation of models for fluidized bed catalytic reactors,” AIChE J., 22.].