(271g) Modeling Multiphase Flow Reactor Systems with Gas–Particle Reactions

The availability of functional open-source codes such as MFiX have enabled computational studies for design exploration of granular chemical reactor systems. Such reactors might involve particle evolution during processes such as chemical vapor deposition or pyrolysis and oxidation of solid fuel particles. In these systems, a range of physical submodels, particularly accounting for particle evolution, are required for accurate simulation of the complex multiscale, multiphysics processes. We highlight two such applications in this talk. The first application involves predicting dynamical patterns in chemical vapor deposition coaters where an objective is to achieve very uniform coating of particles with near-zero failure rates. Statistical analysis involves tracking the thermochemical time history of each particle or in using dynamical metrics to scale up reactor vessels to achieve similar particle-trajectory statistics. The second application is an autothermal biomass pyrolysis reactor in which a small amount of air oxidizes char to produce process heat inside of the reactor. Design exploration to balance stoichiometry, feed rates, and other process variables with product yields is enabled by coupling particle- and reactor-reactor scale models.