Role of dynamic gravity in marinized multiphase packed bed applications

Abstract

Innovative, energy-efficient technologies for the capture and conversion of CO₂ from marine emissions offer a promising path to reducing CO₂ emissions in a circular economy. This emerging research area envisions CO₂ capture and conversion in multiphase packed columns and trickle beds on ships and floating production, storage, and offloading units. However, the associated marine environments, characterized by instability and motions, such as tilting, rolling, and heaving, disrupt fluid dynamics, mass transfer, and reaction performance. This contribution examines recent advances in modeling fluid dynamics in (random/structured) packed columns and trickle beds under simulated marine conditions and highlights the role of dynamic gravity in these marinized multiphase packed bed applications. Using transient three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD modeling and simulation, this work explores the effects of tilt angle, heave, and roll motion parameters to quantitatively address the influence of changing sea/ocean conditions. It attempts to shed light on the design and operation of marine/offshore unit operations. Of particular interest is the study's focus on the multiphase flow hydrodynamics under dynamic gravitational forces (high to zero gravity in radial/azimuthal directions or high to low gravity in axial direction of porous medium), resulting in unique patterns, such as axial asymmetric two-phase flows and oscillatory two-phase flows.