Modeling and simulation of bubbling fluidized bed reactors using a dynamic one-dimensional two-fluid model: The sorption-enhanced steam–methane reforming process

A dynamic one-dimensional multicomponent model for two-phase flows which includes heat- and mass transfer processes are studied in the Euler framework. The model is intended for reactive gas–solid flows in bubbling fluidized bed reactors. A model is desired that allows for a more complex description of the fluidized bed reactors (e.g. prediction of the bed expansion) relative to the conventional fluidized bed reactor models such as, e.g., Kunii–Levenspiel type of models. The model should not predict details in the flow as the two- and three-dimensional Euler two-fluid models in order to ensure reasonable simulation costs. In particular, the two- and three-dimensional Euler two-fluid models challenges the current available computational capacity for studies of reactive flows.The novel sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming (SE-SMR) technology is simulated in the bubbling bed regime. Simulation results of the one-dimensional Euler two-fluid model is compared to both a two-dimensional Euler model and a conventional fluidized bed model consisting of mass and heat balances. Furthermore, a sensitivity study to operation conditions and transport coefficients is performed for the one-dimensional Euler two-fluid model.The present simulation results reveal that the chemical process performance of the reactor is to a large extent determined by the imposed temperature in the reactor. Further, the one-dimensional Euler model provides an improvement of the simpler conventional fluidized bed reactor models by prediction of the bed expansion. Compared with the two-dimensional Euler model, cross-sectional averaging results in a significant reduction in the computational time but on the cost of loss of flow details.