(195d) CFD Simulation of Gas-Liquid Flow in Monolith Channels

Multiphase monolith reactors are a kind of novel process intensification reactors which are promising for many catalytic gas-liquid-solid reactions encountered in chemical, petrochemical, biochemical, and environmental processes. Multiphase hydrodynamics and distribution characteristics in a monolith bed are the important factors which affect gas-liquid mass transfer in monolith channels significantly and therefore the whole reactor performance. In this paper, a two-dimensional (2D) CFD model has been built for analyzing the distribution characteristics of gas-liquid flow within a monolith bed with 0.048m diameter and 400 cpsi. The volume of fluid (VOF) multiphase flow model is implemented to calculate the flow field and capture the interface between the gas and liquid phases then obtain hydrodynamic parameters in each channels of the monolith bed. The simulation results matched well with the experimental results presented by Zhou (Yuan Zhou, et al, 2014, AICHE Journal).