A CFD Design Approach for Industrial Size Tubular Reactors for SNG Production from Biogas (CO 2 Methanation)

Victor Soto, Claudia Ulloa and Ximena Garcia
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Victor Soto: Carbon and Catalysis Laboratory (CarboCat), Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de Concepción, P.O. Box 160-C, Concepción 4070386, Chile
Claudia Ulloa: Environmental Engineering Department, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and EULA Chile Centre, Universidad de Concepción, P.O. Box 160-C, Concepción 4070386, Chile
Ximena Garcia: Carbon and Catalysis Laboratory (CarboCat), Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de Concepción, P.O. Box 160-C, Concepción 4070386, Chile

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-25

Abstract: A tubular reactor based on the disk and doughnut concept was designed as an engineering solution for biogas upgrading via CO 2 methanation. CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) benchmarks agreed well with experimental and empirical (correlation) data, giving a maximum error of 8.5% and 20% for the chemical reaction and heat transfer models, respectively. Likewise, hot spot position was accurately predicted, with a 5% error. The methodology was used to investigate the effect of two commercially available coolants (thermal oil and molten salts) on overall reactor performance through a parametric study involving four coolant flow rates. Although molten salts did show higher heat transfer coefficients at lower coolant rates, 82% superior, it also increases, by five times, the pumping power. A critical coolant flow rate (3.5 m 3 /h) was found, which allows both a stable thermal operation and optimum pumping energy consumption. The adopted coolant flow range remains critical to guarantee thermal design validity in correlation-based studies. Due to the disk and doughnut configuration, coolant flow remains uniform, promoting turbulence (Re ? 14,000 at doughnut outlet) and maximizing heat transfer at hot spot. Likewise, baffle positioning was found critical to accommodate and reduce stagnant zones, improving the heat transfer. Finally, a reactor design is presented for SNG (Synthetic Natural Gas) production from a 150 Nm 3 h ?1 biogas plant.

Keywords: CO 2 methanation; CFD; multi-tubular reactor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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