A three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer model for methanol synthesis in a modular millireactor

Daulet Izbassarov; Judit Nyári; Alpo Laitinen; Arto Laari; Annukka Santasalo-Aarnio; Ville Vuorinen

doi:10.1016/j.ces.2022.117765

A three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer model for methanol synthesis in a modular millireactor

Daulet Izbassarov^*
, Judit Nyári
, Alpo Laitinen
, Arto Laari
, Annukka Santasalo-Aarnio
, Ville Vuorinen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Not published at VTT

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this work, a modular millireactor (MMR) is designed and modeled using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool OpenFOAM. First, the method is validated against a conventional packed bed reactor (PBR) model (1D) with Aspen Plus. Next, the method is applied to study the effects of pressure (2–6 MPa) and temperature (483–533 K) on the performance of the MMR. Conjugate heat transfer (CHT) CFD results for the MMR are compared against a corresponding PBR at isothermal conditions. For the MMR, the methanol yield is shown to vary between 9–23 % within the studied parameter range. Overall, the MMR outperforms the PBR at conditions studied in this work. The maximum difference in methanol yield between MMR and the PBR is noted to be a factor of 1.71 at 533 K and 5 MPa. Such a large discrepancy advocates the usage of 3D CHT/CFD.

Original language	English
Article number	117765
Journal	Chemical Engineering Science
Volume	258
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2022.117765
Publication status	Published - 31 Aug 2022
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

The authors acknowledge the Academy of Finland for the support of this research through Grant Nos. 318024, 332835, 333069, and profiling funding 5 for Energy Storage with Grant No. 326346. Business Finland is acknowledged for the main financial support (grant 8797/31/2019) of the P2XEnable project (p2xenable.fi). The project partners are also thanked for their financial contributions.

Keywords

Aspen Plus
CO hydrogenation
Methanol synthesis
Modular millireactor
OpenFOAM

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.ces.2022.117765Licence: CC BY

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title = "A three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer model for methanol synthesis in a modular millireactor",

abstract = "In this work, a modular millireactor (MMR) is designed and modeled using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool OpenFOAM. First, the method is validated against a conventional packed bed reactor (PBR) model (1D) with Aspen Plus. Next, the method is applied to study the effects of pressure (2–6 MPa) and temperature (483–533 K) on the performance of the MMR. Conjugate heat transfer (CHT) CFD results for the MMR are compared against a corresponding PBR at isothermal conditions. For the MMR, the methanol yield is shown to vary between 9–23 \% within the studied parameter range. Overall, the MMR outperforms the PBR at conditions studied in this work. The maximum difference in methanol yield between MMR and the PBR is noted to be a factor of 1.71 at 533 K and 5 MPa. Such a large discrepancy advocates the usage of 3D CHT/CFD.",

keywords = "Aspen Plus, CO hydrogenation, Methanol synthesis, Modular millireactor, OpenFOAM",

author = "Daulet Izbassarov and Judit Ny{\'a}ri and Alpo Laitinen and Arto Laari and Annukka Santasalo-Aarnio and Ville Vuorinen",

year = "2022",

month = aug,

day = "31",

doi = "10.1016/j.ces.2022.117765",

language = "English",

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T1 - A three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer model for methanol synthesis in a modular millireactor

AU - Izbassarov, Daulet

AU - Nyári, Judit

AU - Laitinen, Alpo

AU - Laari, Arto

AU - Santasalo-Aarnio, Annukka

AU - Vuorinen, Ville

PY - 2022/8/31

Y1 - 2022/8/31

N2 - In this work, a modular millireactor (MMR) is designed and modeled using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool OpenFOAM. First, the method is validated against a conventional packed bed reactor (PBR) model (1D) with Aspen Plus. Next, the method is applied to study the effects of pressure (2–6 MPa) and temperature (483–533 K) on the performance of the MMR. Conjugate heat transfer (CHT) CFD results for the MMR are compared against a corresponding PBR at isothermal conditions. For the MMR, the methanol yield is shown to vary between 9–23 % within the studied parameter range. Overall, the MMR outperforms the PBR at conditions studied in this work. The maximum difference in methanol yield between MMR and the PBR is noted to be a factor of 1.71 at 533 K and 5 MPa. Such a large discrepancy advocates the usage of 3D CHT/CFD.

AB - In this work, a modular millireactor (MMR) is designed and modeled using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool OpenFOAM. First, the method is validated against a conventional packed bed reactor (PBR) model (1D) with Aspen Plus. Next, the method is applied to study the effects of pressure (2–6 MPa) and temperature (483–533 K) on the performance of the MMR. Conjugate heat transfer (CHT) CFD results for the MMR are compared against a corresponding PBR at isothermal conditions. For the MMR, the methanol yield is shown to vary between 9–23 % within the studied parameter range. Overall, the MMR outperforms the PBR at conditions studied in this work. The maximum difference in methanol yield between MMR and the PBR is noted to be a factor of 1.71 at 533 K and 5 MPa. Such a large discrepancy advocates the usage of 3D CHT/CFD.

KW - Aspen Plus

KW - CO hydrogenation

KW - Methanol synthesis

KW - Modular millireactor

KW - OpenFOAM

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85131910235

U2 - 10.1016/j.ces.2022.117765

DO - 10.1016/j.ces.2022.117765

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85131910235

SN - 0009-2509

VL - 258

JO - Chemical Engineering Science

JF - Chemical Engineering Science

M1 - 117765

ER -

A three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer model for methanol synthesis in a modular millireactor

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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