Study On CFD Simulation Of Methanol Synthesis Reactor

The in-depth study to better understand the internal fluid flow,the reaction and the heat transfer process of methanol synthesis reactor,is of great importance for the operation optimization of the methanol generation process and the design optimization of the methanol synthesis reactor.This paper selects DAVY methanol synthesis reactor of a certain company in China as the research object.On the basis of collecting and analyzing plenty of industrial data about DAVY methanol synthesis reactor,the CFD(computational fluid dynamics)method is applied for the simulation of this reactor.First of all,the author sets up a 2D(two-dimensional)reaction model of DAVY methanol synthesis reactor.The results show that the overall pressure of the reactor changes a little;in the reaction area,the temperature increases along the direction of fluid flow,and there appears excess temperature phenomenon in the top of catalyst bed,which verifies the availability of this reaction model.Then,the author establishes a 3D(three-dimensional)heat transfer model of DAVY methanol synthesis reactor.The results show also that the temperature increases along the direction of fluid flow in the reaction area,and the temperature decreases obviously around the heat exchange tubes.Compared to the 2D model,it shows a decrease in the temperature of the 3D model though there still appears excess temperature phenomenon in the top of catalyst bed,which proves the correctness of this heat transfer model.Finally,the author respectively builds up models from three aspects including the heat transfer,the reaction and the feeding method.The results show that arranging Heat exchange tubes with the regular triangle way can effectively homogenize the distribution of temperature,thus achieving better heat exchanging effect;the conversion rate of CO changes obviously with the changing of the hydrogen mole fraction in the feed gas,so the proper composition of feed gas is required during simulation;the way of feeding on both sides can to some extent reduce the bed temperature and prevent excess temperature phenomenon in the reactor.