Dilution Effect in a Tubular H₂-F₂ Flame Reactor

Abstract

The addition of inerts in a highly reactive gas mixture is extensively used to improve the safety of process equipments. The inert diluents cause physical as well as kinetic effects on a chain type of chemical reaction such as between hydrogen and fluorine, even when the reactions are fast. The diluents play a role in the mutual mixing of the reactants. In the present work, the influence of diluents such as helium, nitrogen, and argon on the behavior of a flowing-type tubular H₂-F₂ flame reactor has been experimentally investigated, and the results are reported. A few cases are selected and simulated using a validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The temperature predictions match well with the observations. The velocity and the concentration plots obtained from the validated computational models are presented and discussed. The effect of radiative heat transfer on the reactor temperatures is also investigated.

Keywords:

• Diluents
• H₂-F₂ flame
• Radiative heat transfer
• Reactor temperature
• Simulation
• Tubular reactor

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank Shri Vivek C. Patkar and Shri Chandrajeet Yadav for their assistance during simulation and the entire plant operation team from Chemical Technology Division for their unconditional support during the experimental trials.