Authors: Christopher B. Solnordal a, Keven J. Reid, b, Larry P. Hackman, b, Ray Cocco c, John Findlay c,
a CSIRO Mathematics Informatics and Statistics, Box 312, Clayton South, Victoria, 3169, Australia
b Syncrude Canada Ltd., 9421 17th Avenue, Edmonton, AB, Canada
c Particulate Solid Research, Inc., 4201 W 36th Street, Suite 200, Chicago, Illinois 60632, USA
Abstract: In a FLUID COKING unit, reactor cyclone fouling by coke deposits can set the run length of the unit. Over time the coke deposits can grow and obstruct the cyclone which will limit throughput and lead to a shutdown. For this reason, producing a more uniform coke distribution pattern within the reactor horn chamber may lead to an increased interval between turnarounds. An existing pilot-scale experimental model of the coker reactor freeboard, horn chamber, and exit cyclones allows determination of coke distribution to the cyclones, but provides limited understanding of the underlying fluid dynamics within the system. In this work a two-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of this experimental rig was developed. Coke was modeled as an Eulerian stream of solid particles with monodisperse particle diameter. It was found that predicted coke distributions were sensitive to the choice of coke diameter, but a suitable choice gave good agreement with experimental observations. In the current work this value was 167 μm which was substantially higher than the value of the Sauter mean diameter of 139 μm. It was found that the CFD model could quantitatively predict coke distributions in the freeboard region of a FLUID COKING reactor experimental rig, while providing insight into the flow dynamics. When modeling the particle size distribution with a monodisperse particle diameter, comparison with experimental results is necessary to identify the coke particle diameter that leads to optimal model performance.