Comparative simulation of a fluidised bed reformer using industrial process simulators

Abstract

A simulation model is developed by commercial simulators in order to predict the performance of a fluidised bed reformer. As many physical and chemical phenomena take place in the reformer, two sub-models (hydrodynamic and reaction sub-models) are needed. The hydrodynamic sub-model is based on the dynamic two-phase model and the reaction sub-model is derived from the literature. In the overall model, the bed is divided into several sections. In each section, the flow of the gas is considered as plug flow through the bubble phase and perfectly mixed through the emulsion phase. Experimental data from the literature were used to validate the model. Close agreement was found between the model of both ASPEN Plus (ASPEN PLUS 2004 ©) and HYSYS (ASPEN HYSYS 2004 ©) and the experimental data using various sectioning of the reactor ranged from one to four. The experimental conversion lies between one and four sections as expected. The model proposed in this work can be used as a framework in developing the complicated models for non-ideal reactors inside of the process simulators.

Keywords:

• comparative simulation
• ASPEN
• HYSYS
• reformer
• fluidised beds

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Corrigendum

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support (Grant no. G011) from Iran National Science Foundation (INSF). Financial support of the college of Engineering, Qatar University (Project number 06019P) is also acknowledged during the sabbatical leave (2006–2007) for the completion of this project.