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

Department of Energy and Mechanical Engineering

LUT University

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

3 Citations (Scopus)

312 Downloads (Pure)

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
Pages (from-to)	1-12
Number of pages	12
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

Keywords

Aspen Plus
CO hydrogenation
Methanol synthesis
Modular millireactor
OpenFOAM

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10.1016/j.ces.2022.117765Licence: CC BY

A three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer model for methanol synthesis in a modular millireactorFinal published version, 1.62 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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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",

note = "Funding Information: 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. The authors are grateful for the use of the computer facilities within the Aalto University School of Science ”Science-IT” project. The authors wish to acknowledge CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland, for computational resources. We thank Pavel Maksimov for fruitful discussions during the preparation of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors",

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

language = "English",

volume = "258",

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journal = "Chemical Engineering Science",

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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

N1 - Funding Information: 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. The authors are grateful for the use of the computer facilities within the Aalto University School of Science ”Science-IT” project. The authors wish to acknowledge CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland, for computational resources. We thank Pavel Maksimov for fruitful discussions during the preparation of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors

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.

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KW - CO hydrogenation

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KW - OpenFOAM

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SP - 1

EP - 12

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

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Cool/Kaario: Reacting flow near cool walls

-: Reactive flow in porous media: modelling and experiments in atomic layer deposition context

P2XENABLE: P2XENABLE

Science-IT

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

Abstract

Keywords

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Projects

Cool/Kaario: Reacting flow near cool walls

-: Reactive flow in porous media: modelling and experiments in atomic layer deposition context

P2XENABLE: P2XENABLE

Equipment

Science-IT

Cite this