3D Unsteady Simulation of a Scale-Up Methanation Reactor with Interconnected Cooling Unit

Liyan Sun, Kun Luo and Jianren Fan
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Liyan Sun: Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse, 31400 Toulouse, France
Kun Luo: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Jianren Fan: State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-19

Abstract: The production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) via methanation has been demonstrated by experiments in bench scale bubbling fluidized bed reactors. In the current work, we focus on the scale-up of the methanation reactor, and a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) is designed with variable diameter according to the characteristic of methanation. The critical issue is the removal of reaction heat during the strongly exothermic process of the methanation. As a result, an interconnected bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) is utilized and connected with the reactor in order to cool the particles and to maintain system temperature. A 3D model is built, and the influences of operating temperature on H 2 , CO conversion and CH 4 yield are evaluated by numerical simulations. The instantaneous and time-averaged flow behaviors are obtained and analyzed. It turns out that the products with high concentrations of CH 4 are received at the CFB reactor outlet. The temperature of the system is kept under control by using a cooling unit, and the steady state of thermal behavior is achieved under the cooling effect of BFB reactor. The circulating rate of particles and the cooling power of the BFB reactor significantly affect the performance of reactor. This investigation provides insight into the design and operation of a scale-up methanation reactor, and the feasibility of the CFB reactor for the methanation process is confirmed.

Keywords: CO methanation; simulation; heat transfer; circulating fluidized bed (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
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