TITLE: Modeling the Fluid Dynamics of the H-Coal Reactor.

AUTHOR: I. A. Vasalos;   E. M. Bild;   D. F. Tatterson.

INST.  AUTHOR: Amoco Research Center, Naperville, IL.

SPONSOR: Department of Energy.

LANGUAGE: English

PUB.  TYPE: Technical Report

PUB.  COUNTRY: United States

SOURCE: Department of Energy [DE],  1979,  79p.

NOTES: 87. AICHE national meeting, Boston, MA, USA, 19 Aug 1979.

REPORT NO.: CONF790822-3

ABSTRACT:

A key feature of the H-coal process is the use of an ebullated bed for achieving good mixing between slurried coal, hydrogen, and extruded catalyst particles. The H-coal reactor can be modeled as a four-phase fluid bed system containing liquid, fines, gases, and catalyst particles.  In order to study the hydrodynamic behavior of this gas/slurry/catalyst system, a cold flow model was constructed consisting of a glass reactor 15.24 cm in ID and 6 m long. A recycle cup located in the upper part of the reactor is used for the partial separation of gas from the slurry before part of the slurry is recycled to the bottom of the reactor. The layout and dimensions of this unit are very similar to a 3 T/D coal liquefaction process development unit (PDU) successfully operated by Hydrocarbon Research, Incorporated (HRI). Using kerosene, pulverized coal char, and nitrogen, it has been found that at ambient conditions the bed expansion of cylindrical catalyst extrudates 1.6 mm in diameter and 4.8 mm in length closely simulates the behavior of the H-coal reactor. Operating conditions which favor the distribution of the gas phase in the stable ideal bubbly regime are also described. (ERA citation 04:049450)

CONTRACT  NUMBER: EF-77-C-01-2588