CFD Modeling of the Catalyst Oil Slurry Hydrodynamics in a High Pressure and Temperature as Potential for Biomass Liquefaction

Abstract

The paper presents the simulation of a catalyst-paraffin oil slurry hydrodynamics under high pressure and temperature in a convex bottom reactor with a Rushton turbine which was conducted with an application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. An analysis to obtain a uniform distribution of solid catalyst particles suspended in paraffin oil was carried out as a potential for biomass liquefaction. The effects of the particle diameter, bed density, liquid viscosity, and the initial solid loading on slurry hydrodynamics in high pressure and temperature behavior were investigated using the Eulerian–Eulerian two-fluid model and the standard k-ε turbulence model. The main objective was to assess the performance in agitating highly concentrated slurries to obtain slurry velocity, concentration, the degree of homogeneity, and to examine their effect on the mixing quality. The results of the analysis are applied to predicting the impact of the most efficient conditions on slurry suspension qualities as potential for biomass liquefaction.