Acetylene Hydrogenation Processes Studied Using CFD in a Packed Bed Reactor

Abstract

Acetylene hydrogenation reactions (AHR) are typically carried out in fixed bed reactors (FBRs) with high diameter-to-particle diameter (D/d). In this study, first, a real catalyst bed was built using the discrete element method, and the suitability of the bed was assessed using empirical equations. Second, a discrete element method-computational fluid dynamics (DEM-CFD) model was developed using CFD in conjunction with the reaction mechanism to simulate the AHR in the FBR and was compared with the experimental results. The results show that the DEM-CFD can well predict the 3D interactions of velocity, temperature, and species for different D/d. The results can provide favorable theoretical guidance for the optimization of FBR and process intensification.