CFD modelling of flow mal-distribution in an industrial ammonia oxidation reactor: A case study

• A failure has been observed in an industrial ammonia oxidation reactor.
• CFD code helps to simulate the flow inside the reactor.
• The flow becomes non-uniformly distributed due to the reactor header mal-design.
• The flow mal-distribution results in some drawbacks.

Ammonia oxidation reactor is widely used in nitric acid plant to cause the catalytic reaction between air and ammonia to produce nitrous gases. In this work, the flow distribution inside the ammonia oxidation reactor at Shiraz Petrochemical Complex (SPC) has been simulated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code. The CFD results showed that the flow is non-uniformly distributed inside the reactor due to improper header design of the reactor. Measuring of the temperature distribution around the skin of the reactor has been carried out using thermograph. The thermograph experiment showed a considerable temperature difference between the left and right side of the reactor. It was found that the mal-distribution of the gas flow inside the reactor can directly affect the performance of the reactor.

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