Particle size growing in an industrial gas phase fluidized bed polymerization reactor by CFD-PBM coupled model

Particle size growing in an industrial gas phase fluidized bed polymerization reactor by CFD-PBM coupled model

Particle size distribution (PSD) has significant effects in the reactor efficiency evaluation in an industrial fluidized bed polymerization reactor. The computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models coupled with population balance equation (CFD-PBM) have been extensively used to study the flow behavior in the poly-disperse multiphase fluidized bed reactors (FBRs) by ANSYS Fluent code. In this study, a CFD-PBM/ DQMOM coupled modeling framework has been utilized to study its potential to analyze the industrial-scale gas phase polymerization reactor. The predicted results reveal an adequate agreement with the observed industrial data in terms of pressure drop and bed height. The simulated results also show that the higher particle growth rate can be attained for bigger particles. Hence, the CFD-PBM/DQMOM coupled model can be applied as a reliable tool for analyzing and improving the design and operation of the gas phase polymerization FBRs.