Multi-Phase CFD Modeling of Solid Sorbent Carbon Capture System

Authors: E.M.Ryan ^a, D. De Croix ^b, R. Breault ^c, W. Xu ^d, E. D. Huckaby ^c, K. Saha ^c, S. Dartevelle ^b, and X. Sun ^d
a Boston University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston, MA, United States
^b Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States
^c National Energy Technology Laboratory, Morgantown, WV, United States
^d Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, United States

Source: Ryan, E. M.; DeCroix, D.; Breault, R.; Xu, W.; Huckaby, E. D.; Saha, K.; Dartevelle, S.; Sun, X. Multi-Phase CFD Modeling of Solid Sorbent Carbon Capture System. Powder Technology 2013, 242, 117–134.

Abstract: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are used to investigate a low temperature post-combustion carbon capture reactor. The CFD models are based on a small scale solid sorbent carbon capture reactor design from ADA-ES and Southern Company. The reactor is a fluidized bed design based on a silica-supported amine sorbent. CFD models using both Eulerian–Eulerian and Eulerian–Lagrangian multi-phase modeling methods are developed to investigate the hydrodynamics and adsorption of carbon dioxide in the reactor. Models developed in both FLUENT® and BARRACUDA are presented to explore the strengths and weaknesses of state of the art CFD codes for modeling multi-phase carbon capture reactors. The results of the simulations show that the FLUENT® Eulerian–Lagrangian simulations (DDPM) are unstable for the given reactor design; while the BARRACUDA Eulerian–Lagrangian model is able to simulate the system given appropriate simplifying assumptions. FLUENT® Eulerian–Eulerian simulations also provide a stable solution for the carbon capture reactor given the appropriate simplifying assumptions.