Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Gas-Solid Flow during Steam Reforming of Glycerol in a Fluidized Bed Reactor

A computational fluid dynamics simulation of gas-solid flow in a fluidized bed reactor was performed to investigate the steam reforming of glycerol using a three-step reaction scheme, motivated by the worldwide increase of crude glycerol produced by the transesterification of vegetable oil into biodiesel. The Eulerian-Eulerian two-fluid approach was adopted to simulate hydrodynamics of fluidization, and chemical reactions were modeled by the laminar finite-rate model. The gas-solid system exhibited a more heterogeneous structure. Clusters were observed to fall and stack together along the wall, and the process of wall slug formation was very evident. This suggests the bed should be agitated to maintain satisfactory fluidizing conditions. The results showed that the glycerol conversion increased with increasing reaction time, and most of the gas products-H2, CO2, CH4, and CO-were formed during the initial 2 s. The prediction of the gas-solid phase flows and mixing, glycerol conversion, and products distribution will provide helpful data to design and operate a bench-scale catalytic fluidized bed reactor.