Computational Fluid Dynamics Model of CO2 Capture in Fluidized Bed Reactors: Operating Parameter Optimization

Alternative energy is one of the methods for decreasing fossil fuel consumption. However, conventional fossil fuel process improvement is also considerably interesting issue due to the fact that adjusting existing process is easier and cheaper comparing to the development of the process compatible with the alternative energy. At present, the global warming and climate change phenomenon cause the increasing of average earth temperature. The CO2 emission to the atmosphere is mainly produced by fossil fuel combustion from power industry. This is because the CO2 has high heat capacity. Therefore, in order to use the conventional fossil fuel process efficiently, CO2 should be eliminated from the flue gas before releasing it to the environment. Currently, there are many methods that use to capture CO2 such as using circulating fluidized bed riser with solid sorbent. The advantages of circulating fluidized bed riser are uniform solid particle and temperature distributions, high contacting area between gas-solid particle and suitable for continuous operation. In this study, the effect of operating parameters on CO2 capture in circulating fluidized bed riser with solid sorbent is investigated using 2D computational fluid dynamics model. The basic simulation step has to find the suitable computational mesh cells or grid independency test (5,000, 10,000, 15,000 and 20,000 cells) and compare the simulation result with the real experimental result. According to the simulation results, the suitable mesh cell is 10,000 cells and the obtained result is matched with the experimental results. Then, the effect of operating parameters on the CO2 capture conversion is optimized.